ECONOMIES IN BRITAIN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 12, 25 October 1949, Page 3

ECONOMIES IN BRITAIN

Plea for Balanced Criticism

LONDON, Oct. 24.. \ 'The British Labour Party’s newspaper, the “Daily Herald,” says that the Government economies which Mr Attlee will announce to-day will cause * desirable developments to be retarded. The newspaper adds that there may be criticism of this or that particular economy, but the programme should be judged as a whole. The Prime Minister’s programme should be judged on whether it fairly distributes the burdens.

The “Daily Express” says that new cuts in the standard of living cannot bring prosperity to Britain. “The cuts, like devaluation itself, are measures forced on the Government by the pressure of events,” the newspaper adds. V‘They are evidence of failure.”

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour (Mr Ness Edwards) told a meeting in South Wales that Mr Attlee’s announcement would put unofficial strikes in a “new setting.” They would be “rightly regarded as sabotage of the nation’s effort to regain hold on the future.” The Minister of Transport (Mr A. J. Barnes) said in a speech in Kent: “I do not think that the men of this country have played the game since the end of the war. We have carried out our mandate against adverse conditions, and we are entitled, as the administration, to call on the great mass of men workers to turn out a greater quantity of goods than is at present pouring from the factories. It is not sufficient to retain our social services on the present output.”