Post by Diarist on May 24, 2016 18:19:24 GMT 1
Sally's father met us at the entrance and we went to a nearby restaurant. I was introduced to John Keynes and at first we talked about the situation in Europe and my new position in the MoD. Eventually we got to why I asked to meet him. I showed him my 16 page document which he carefully read and actually complimented it. "An interesting proposition."
"But a balancing act and it's unchartered territory. The unemployed masses need to be turned into soldiers over the next 3 to 4 years but during that transition they learn a trade, if they haven't already, work in the expanding economy required to support an expanding and increasingly more mechanized armed forces. When the war is over we shall hopefully have already started changing to a consumer economy which will be looking for a workforce, a demobilizing but trained workforce. How does one balance all that?"
"You are asking for a very flexible workforce and are hoping that the trade unions keep quiet."
"Isn't a flexible workforce a page from your book?"
"A flexible wage policy."
"We are offering full employment, more money than from unemployment benefits, they'll learn a trade so they won't be untrained labour any more and they'll have a perspective in life. Employers will only have to pay the difference between the regular wage and what they are already receiving from the military. They'll save labour costs. Everybody saves, not only the employers. We'll have a larger standing army but the MoD doesn't have foot the entire bill. The support units will receive better trained soldiers who already know the equipment they'll be working with and that means less training costs and more proficiency. I believe that this pre-war policy, or something similar, will help us avoid the post-war problems of the 1920's."
"You are suggesting sharing the burden in order to share the costs."
"That's it in a nutshell, sir. Could you turn this basic idea into viable proposition which Winston Churchill can then present to the cabinet for approval?"
"I could try to but I don't want to promise too much."
"I'm very grateful for any support you can offer, sir. We are already doing this on a small scale. Since Hitler's speech in March we have called up ca. 350,000 people, mostly unemployed. Not just to serve as soldiers but also build new airfields for the RAF, also housing and other amenities for the units to be based there."
Sally looked at her watch again.
"Sally and I have another important appointment. Here is my office in the MoD and telephone number. The second number is Sally's."
We did our farewells then left for RAF Duxford.