A DIFFICULT PROBLEM

Among the problems of the present time demanding rapid solution, the demobilisation and resettlement of the fighting forces and civilian war workers is by far the most important, because upon it depends the reestablishment of industrial life, and the wellbeing of the nation. That it is beset with difficulties which will require careful handling none can dispute. No Government department could hope to achieve any measurable amount of success without the cooperation of representatives of trades and industries, both employers and employed. When the armistice was signed the Navy, Army, and Air Force amounted to six and a half million of men, but the total war effort of the country, at home and abroad, exceeded ten million. The out-of-work factor which this demobilisation has created is roughly one-third, there being 270,000 people drawing outof-work benefit to-day. In other words, that form of benefit has risen from nothing per cent in the insured trades at the date of the armistice to 5 per cent. Taking the sugar-card population – the best census available – there are now sixty-five individuals per 10,000 out of work and the out-of-work population is going up seventeen per 10,000 of the total population every week. That is a figure which the Government are watching very carefully, and in considering the rate of demobilisation, note is being taken of it. At present the proportion is not regarded as alarming, and is not being allowed to hold back discharges from the Army, but if unemployment should reach a high point in consequence of demobilisation within the next few months, there might be trouble, and to avoid that, it might be necessary to slow down the rate of discharge.