PREPARATIONS FOR PEACE.
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SOME TWO YEARS ago, in a revue at one of the London theatres, there was included a very clever and cynical little scene in which a "munitioner" of fabulous wealth figured as the chief character. This gentleman's main fear was that the day might presently come when we should be "faced with a devastating peace." There is more in this theory than meets the eye, and the phrase may not be altogether inapplicable, not merely in reference to the, abnormal prosperity of certain individuals, but rather to the general state of affairs in the country as a whole.
We were all warned so often against allowing our mind to drift for a moment from the one great object of winning the war, that some of us have been led to neglect the almost equally important work of preparing for peace. Had peace come quite suddenly a couple of years ago, our position would have been an extremely dangerous one Even now it is unsafe, though less dangerous. In the meanwhile, the Ministry of Reconstruction has been formed, but its powers are very limited. It can advise and it can press for action, but the pressure has to be exerted against Departments staffed largely for war purposes and in many cases of a temporary character. In some of these departments there exists, it is to be feared, a somewhat strong desire to spin out the work to be done and to make it take as long as possible, while the people in charge are given time to create for themselves new jobs or to turn present temporary wartime jobs into peace-time permanencies. It is expecting a good deal of any man to expect him to hurry forward the time when his present post will no longer need to be filled, especially if that post is a good one and carries with it a somewhat distinctive and authoritative position.
A great industry. or a great movement—such as those associated respectively with the manufacture and with the use of motor vehicles—struggling to mature its post-war programme, finds itself cramped and confined in many directions. This thing cannot be done until that is completed ; that cannot be completed because the controller of something or other is in no hurry to cease to be the controller or has insufficient vision to realize the incalculable damage he can do by sticking out for trivial points of official etiquette and procedure. While we have been endeavouring to impregnate officialdom with a business spirit, we have succeeded, to some extent at least, in impregnating business men with the official atmosphere which is all against rapid decision and quick movement. Our Government has become such an immense machine that it is difficult to track the particular train of wheels that must be set in motion in order to produce a particular result. We cannot side-track the greater part of the train and go straight to the main-spring. The size and complexity of the machine makes this impossible.
Those who have not participated in them know little of the desperate efforts which have been made by industrial and business interests to get ahead with their programme associated with the period of reconstruction, and the joy with which the very slightest i progress s hailed, even though the step taken brings us only very little nearer to the ultimate goal. No doubt, if we all "realize that we must now fight for a prosperous peace just as hard as we have had to fight for victory in war, all may yet be well. The great danger is, however, that what with those who are in no hurry to resimtheir official positions and those who feel that, after a period of strenuous effort, they must necessarily relax for a time, we shall allow matters .to hang fire so long that we shall find ourselves faced with an unavoidable period during which something approaching chaos will reign, because the preparations for order were not made far enough in advance. Neither do we think that it is solely the official who must be blamed if serious crises arise. The Government appears to have done very well in the matter of supplies of raw material' The feared shortage for post-war purposes has mercifully been avoided. But, had the shortage occurred, which was possible, were our industries ready with their estimates and plans to thole the best of a bad job ? The majority of individual concerns have not, we believe, given to such subjects the thought which they deserve. They have left them for consideration later on. In this con nection let it be taken to heart that the failure of a few individual concerns to collaborate with the re mainder of an inditstry with a view to defining the whole industry's position or carrying through a united programme may tteutralize the efforts of the many that are striving to save the future by cooperative effort.