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NEWS OF THE WEEK
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THE Government has not been conspicuously happy in its declara- tions on demobilisation, whatever it may have been in the handling of the process itself. The statement made by the Minister of Labour before the House rose caused considerable dissatisfaction among his own supporters, some of whom went on deputation to him later. The announcement that the Prime Minister himself was to broadcast on the subject aroused expectations, but what Mr. Attlee actually had to say on Monday carried matters little further, except in regard to Class B men, all of whom are now free to apply for immediate release ; but many Class B men prefer to wait for the better conditions which release under the Class A scheme entails. Mr. Attlee did, however, say that the Minister of Labour- would be making a detailed statement shortly, and expectation was aroused once more. But Mr. Isaacs, when he made his statement on Wed- nesday, said little or nothing that was not known before, except that he would make another statement towards the end of September. The Government's difficulties must be appreciated ; shortage of transport is one of them ; a certain unto-operativeness or leisureliness on the part of the Service chiefs would seem to be another ; the need for preserving the general equity secured by the Bevin scheme, and avoiding the dissatisfaction which the creation of privileged classes would evoke, is a third. But even so it is hard to believe that, with the Japanese war ended as well as the German, the rate of release is anything like what it should be. As Sir Hubert Henderson pointed out in a cogent letter to The Times on Thursday, it may be impossible to state precisely what the numerical needs of the Services are, but it is certain they are nothing approaching the present figure of 5,000,000 ; at the outside 1,500,000 will be adequate. Sir-Hubert makes the further important point that halt the men m the Army today, and perhaps a couple of millions still nominally on war-production, are practically wasting their time, so that the country is suffering from " concealed unemployment " to the extent
of something like 5,000,000 potential workers. These particular figures may be contested, but the general truth remains. It would be satisfactory if the Government showed a greater consciousness of urgency in the matter and took note of the far more rapid rate of release found practicable for the American forces.
