Wives at war [antikvár]

Babs had always suspected that industry and commerce were built around a wide margin of inefficiency but it wasn't until she went to work for the Ministry of Labour in the early autumn of 1940 that she learned just how wide that margin could be and how damaging to a nation at war.'War,' Mr Harding informed her on her first day at the office, 'war is, by its very nature, the quintessence of insecu-rity. Our problem is how to strike a balance between security, which can easily bracket off into apathy or all-consuming self-interest, and insecurity, which leads to irritation, disunity and stress. Are you with me on that, Mrs Hallop?''Yes, sir, I do believe I am.'He gave her the eye, not the sort of eye Babs was used to receiving from men but a deep, dour sort of scrutiny so magnified by his inch-thick lenses that she felt as if he were peering right through her. Without his glasses, she thought, his eyes would probably vanish altogether, like those of a hedgehog or a vole. He was, at a guess, not a day over twenty-five.'Twenty-six per cent labour wastage in the third quarter of last year, according to government figures,' Archie Harding went on. 'My God, how the Germans must be laughing up their sleeves. My job, my role in this mighty conflict is to ensure that production quotients are increased by the simple expedient of redistributing the work force into areas where it will do most good. Only by winning the production war can