The Effect of the Second World War on the South Africa economy and the economic and industrial control measures implemented as part of the war effort are the issues covered in these papers. The reactions of skilled and unskilled labour to these controls are reflected in correspondence between the Controller of Manpower and various boards and government officials. The papers have been sorted into three sections, the first containing the source material collected, to be used in the compilation of a civil and economic Union war history.

Subsections overlap, as much of the material dealing with particular industries - eg official council and committee minutes, notices and correspondence, conference and talks, surveys and statistics are interspersed with material from various other sources, such as commission reports (eg The Native Wages Commission), reports from Divisional Inspectors of Labour and Government Gazettes. Defence matters are dealt with in the War Committee Minutes and in the official war measures publications and proclamations. Wage and Industrial Strike matters are discussed in reports, correspondence and surveys.

The second section deals with material from the Union War Histories Department and includes correspondence with various writers, researchers and economic historians who submitted contributions for publication. Much of the correspondence and several of the contributions (manuscripts and typescripts of which appear in the third section) have been written by Professor H M Robertson, who was Assistant Editor for the work; a post he relinquished on 31 December 1948, becoming instead, Advisor and Consultant. The Editorship was undertaken by J A I Hamilton.

Finally, there is a large section containing written contributions for the Union War History. Certain papers deal `with the early years'; for example, `Contemporary views of the economic problems posed by the first Dutch settlement at the Cape', (written during the 1960s), and `notes on the history of the Union formed in May 1910'.

The narratives cover control of various industries, trade, procurement, economic problems, and controls, finance and exchange control, establishment of government machinery dealing with economic and social control, labour and labour disputes and civil history.

The bulk of the material - particularly the source material - was deposited some years ago, and recently supplemented with the incomplete drafts for the book, and the Union War Histories Section's correspondence and reports. It appears that the work was never published, although the material has been used in certain theses.