PRICE-WAGE SPIRAL IS DANGER IN WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 9, 11 January 1940, Page 7

PRICE-WAGE SPIRAL IS DANGER IN WAR.

BRITAIN WARNED.

Hint Of Sacrifices Given

By Premier.

BURDEN FOB ALL CLASSES.

British Official Wireless.

(Received 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, January 10. The passages in the Mansion House speech of the Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, singled out for comment in most newspapers are those in which he declared that the war would grow grimmer and that greater sacrifices would have to be made because the increasing production of armaments must involve decreasing production of civilian goods, as well as the curtailment of all unnecessary imports. Dealing 1 with a suggestion heard in some quarters that the unemployed should be engaged to produce civilian goods, he reminded his hearers that the figures of unemployment to some extent ars misleading, for they include quite a number of people, perhaps half a million, who are merely passing from one job to another, and as to the rest the situation is only temporary because the great bulk of the unemployed would be usefully employed and would be absorbed as Britain went j on expanding the number of firms employed on armament works. In the engineering industry alone, including in it aircraft engines, said Mr. Chamberlain, Britain would want hundreds of thousands of men. Even supposing the country had ample supplies of labour available, its resources of foreign exchange and of shipping to purchase and bring home things it could not do without were limited. Everyone Must Sacrifice. Scaling with the need for sacrifice, Mr. Chamberlain pointed out that already the wealthier classes had suffered very heavy reductions in their incomes and had been left with very little prospect of increasing them again. The. Prime Minister added that he did "not say they had come to the end of demands on the wealthy, but it was not possible for them alone to solve the problem of liow to reduce consumption of unnecessary articles because two-thirds of the consumption of the people of Britain was bv those who had only srna'l incomes. Therefore, it was necessary that tliey also should make their sacrifices. • "I do not mean to imply that there must be no increases in wages," he said, "but I do say it would be a mistake to tie up wages to the cost of living, which in the end can benefit no one, because it could only give a violent impetus to the. vicious spiral of alternately rising prices and wages, and that is the thing all of us want to avoid. Effort to Shorten War. Asking what was to be done to win and, if possible, shorten the war, Mr. Chamberlain said: "We must save. We must control imports. We must do without commodities that are not necessary. We. must, if required, ration them in order that all may share and share alike. What I want the country to realise is what is going on every day, although in a form which is unfamiliar, and every restriction which they are asked to accept is just one part of the general plan for securing victory in the shortest possible time."