Page 138 - WW1 - 1918

Remembering Redditch Residents & WW1 Redditch Local History Society

th
The Bromsgrove, Droitwich and Redditch Messenger – Saturday 28
December 1918

Peace will not be formally declared until 1919 is well advanced, but the war
is, so far as can be foreseen, a thing of the past. People are asking what of the future? The
question is one it is impossible to answer with any pretence of definiteness. The war
confounded all prophesies and the experiences of the past four years discourage forecasts.
In August 1914, the general idea was that unemployment would be ride and that the
greatest economy would be needed to save the country from privation. A nation in arms,
however, required a nation at work behind it, and as a result employment was never so
plentiful, and wages were never so high. There has been an ever-increasing shortage of the
necessaries of life, but all things considered, the people at large have not suffered from the
war to any great extent. Of course the prosperity has been artificial, and has been made
possible by heavy borrowings in respect of which high charges will have to be met in future
decades for the purposes of interest and repayment. A change has now suddenly to be
made for a war to a peace establishment, and if the balance of things is to be maintained it
will need the wisest direction of events on the part of the Government. The Government
cannot do everything, however. With food and other necessary commodities at their present
high prices, wages cannot return to the pre-war level, and an increase in production appears

Page: 138 © RLHS 2014