So soon as the seizure of the existing supplies of atomic ammunition and
the apparatus for synthesising Carolinum was assured, the disbanding or
social utilisation of the various masses of troops still under arms had
to be arranged, the salvation of the year's harvests, and the feeding,
housing, and employment of the drifting millions of homeless people.
In Canada, in South America, and Asiatic Russia there were vast
accumulations of provision that was immovable only because of the
breakdown of the monetary and credit systems. These had to be brought
into the famine districts very speedily if entire depopulation was to
be avoided, and their transportation and the revival of communications
generally absorbed a certain proportion of the soldiery and more able
unemployed. The task of housing assumed gigantic dimensions, and from
building camps the housing committee of the council speedily passed to
constructions of a more permanent type. They found far less friction
than might have been expected in turning the loose population on their
hands to these things. People were extraordinarily tamed by that year of
suffering and death; they were disillusioned of their traditions, bereft
of once obstinate prejudices; they felt foreign in a strange world,
and ready to follow any confident leadership.
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