First Report on the Progress of Reconstruction Planning 1st March 1944

Abstract

The economic system of the whole world is now working at top speed and various factors which are generally non-existent in peacetime are in operation. The end of the war must therefore mean considerable dislocation. In the first instance, there will be a check to recruiting and some demobilisation. Secondly, there will be a check to the How of war orders and probably the cancellation of contracts with consequential decline in the volume of production in war industries which now cover an extremely wide range and involve large sections of the population. Thirdly, there will be considerable changes in the industrial structure which will affect the civil market as a whole, e.g. changes in capacity now used for specialised war goods, changes in technique and specifications, disposal of stocks held by the market and the Government.