ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 29, 4 February 1943, Page 3

ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

POST-AVAR OUTLOOK LONDON, January 17. As a notable exception to the general reticence of individual industrialists on post-war economic problems, the annual report of the Lancashire Cotton Corporation, Ltd., makes two telling points against over-facile optimism. The points are: —• (1) It is unlikely that complete freedom of imports and exports will be possible for a considerable time after the war, since shipping will be needed to carry food, clothing and raw materials to necessitous countries. (2) War exigencies haye delayed modernisation of plant, and in view of the accumulating requirements of foreign purchasers of British machinery, only a definite percentage of priorities at reasonable prices will enable the British cotton industry after the war to meet competition from countries which have not had to bear equal profit restrictions or taxation. The latter point applies not only to cotton, but to other large sections of industry, and expresses succinctly one of the chief anxieties of ..business circles, where the promised 20 per cent E.P.T. refund is considered to be altogether inadequate, assistance for a switchover of plants to peace production. _ The Economist complains flwlan reconstruction programmes of hTuustrial groups actually make a gigantic Beveridge plan for British industry.