Evening star., 1941-01-23
British Labor

The announcement by Labor Min
lister Ernest Bevin that England is
planning to institute work plan
which amounts virtually to the con-
scription of labor, and the relatively
slight opposition from British work.
men to this drastic step, are impress
sive additional evidences that the
people of Britain, however late the
hour, are determined to close ranks
against the most serious threat
which the Empire has had to face
in modern times.
Under the new plan, as outlined
to the House Of Commons by the
Labor Minister, the government pro-
poses to invoke emergency powers
granted by Parliament last May, but
not heretofore used. The primary
objective is to create permanent
mobile labor force" and to this end
it is expected that both men and
women in all walks of life will be
drafted for vital defense work, while
those already so employed will be
forbidden to leave their jobs with
out permission of the government.
As a companion measure, 1t is also
proposed that employers be for
hidden to discharge workers in vital
industries except for misconduct.
In making his significant an
nouncement, Mr.. Bevin painted a
rather encouraging overall picture
of British defense production, which
he said was stepped up in many vital
particulars in the latter part of 1910,
but in view of the belated decision to
conScript labor it is only reasonable
to conclude that Britain's supreme
production effort has not yet been
undertaken. According to one Con-
servative member of the House, the
British people have been relying to
dangerous extent on aid from the
United States, which cannot become
decisive until next year, and the
Labor Minister'S statement may we'll
mean that the government feels that
the time is at hand when all other
considerations must give way to the
imperative necessity of achieving a
maximum production of the instru-
ments of war in preparation for the
invasion attempt which is expected
this spring.
If this is the case, Britain is en-
tering upon modified version of
military preparedness effort which
was launched in Germany some
seven years ago. On May 2, 1888,
three months after Hitler became
Chancellor of the Reich, Storm
Troopers seized all trade union Offices
in Germany, arrested their officers
and leaders and confiscated all
trade union property. The trade
union movement was replaced by
the German Labor Front, section
of the Nazi party, and the estab-
lished rights of German labor soon
vanished in the face of increasing
state demands for service. To this
day no German worker may shift
employment in any way without
official permission, and each worker
must carry at all times a work-book
in which his employment record is
set forth. A black mark in this
book, according to Gustav STOPPER,
or any notation of non-co-o operation
with the Nazi program, amounts to
a death sentence for the worker.
Labor Minister Bevins proposal,
in addition to being milder than the
system established in the Reich, is
made more palatable by a specific
pledge that the government soon
will present a bill providing for
restoration Of union and individual
rights at the end of the war. That
pledge will have little meaning, how
ever, if Britain should lose the war
by reason of having been too late
in launching a total defense effort.