ABSTRACT
In 1943, a memo to the emergency legislation committee recommended that regulations 58A and 58AA should be revoked six to twelve months after the cessation of all hostilities, which at the time was expected to be some eighteen months after the end of the war in Europe. After five years of peace and with the supplies and services act and the emergency laws act due to expire in December 1950, it might have been anticipated that this would mark the end of the wartime emergency powers. The period from the end of the European war until 1947 saw a gradual relaxation of labour controls. Although a new and comprehensive ‘control of engagement order’ was introduced in May 1945, registrations under the ‘registration for employment order’ were suspended in July 1945 and the number of directions issued to workers was drastically reduced.
