Manpower Directorate (Australia)

The Manpower Directorate was a division of the Government of Australia[1] established in January, 1942[1] to be responsible for active service and support industry recruitment during World War II to combat labor shortages in strategic areas.[1] The agency had extensive power and reach in furtherance of this effort:

In effect, Manpower imposed industrial conscription. It issued identity cards to all Australian adults, had the sole power to decide who worked where, and raided hotels and race tracks rounding up those evading war work.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Second World War – Reserved occupations, Australian War Memorial encyclopedia.
  2. Joan Beaumont, Australia's War, 1939-1945 (1996), p. 63.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, November 23, 2012. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.