LONDON TOPICS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13056, 26 January 1943, Page 7

LONDON TOPICS

RENEWAL OF AIR RAIDS Parliament's Work Beveridge Security Plan London, Jan. 20. Bombs on London, a slight relaxaing of the blackout, Parliament again in session, a statement by the Minister of Production, Mr Oliver Lyttelton, on Britain's war production drive in 19 43, the reply by Sir William Beveridge to critics of his social security report, and comments on banking, stand out as interesting topics this week. "They'll be over to-night," Avas the general comment heard the day after the Royal Air Force raid on Berlin. Few people were surprised, therefore, when the sirens wailed. They were surprised at the intensity of the defence barrage, which was so loud and sustained that it was difficult to hear aircraft or distinguish bomb bursts from gunfire. Blackout Modifications

Londoners are resigning themselves to the fact that raids may recur, sinco the bom ring of Berlin is believed to be part of the policy to get the Germans to retaliate and to retaliate they must draw off bombers from the Russian and other fronts.

The peoppl? of London like t-eiiig bombed ab/at as much as New Zealanders like earthquakes, but there is a certain satisfaction in realising that the Germans are forced to use aircraft for purposes other than those which they desire.

After a long controversy, the authorities decided eventually to relax slightly the blackout precautions. There had been a demand for this throughout the war by some sections of the community which hitherto had been somewhat primly, rebuked by the Home Office, but now railway carrirage lighting will be improved and lights will be left on at stations unless a raid is progressing. There always seems to be greater interest in the war effort when Parliament is in session, and this is again apparent. The reviews by the deputy-Prime Minister, Mr C. R. Attlee, and the Leader of the House of Lords, Lord Cranborne, confirm the cheerful spirit which has been spread abroad by the success of Russia and the British Eighth Army, and th«re is much interest in Mr Lyttelton's statement on Britain's war production work, for it indicates that factories are facing a big arms switch.

Parliament will be the great centre of attraction when the Beveridge social security plan is debated. Meanwhile the main arguments of the opponents have been that social security will demoralise the people and prevent their being enterprising and adventurous. Sir "William Beveridge in a speech at Plymouth rounded on these critics. He asked: "How can .one demoralise people by spending money and keeping them well or making them fit for work by rehabilitation or by giving them the assurance that at the end of their lives A hey will have just enough money to live on without burdening their children?" The Manchester Guardian observed recently: "The tide of criticism, both reasoned and superstitious, is once again rising against, the banks." It is not surprising, therefore, that at annual meetings of banks, chairmen have been delivering broadsides against this . criticism. Mr Rupert Beckett, of the Westminster Bank, states that nationalisation of banks would make banking service neither cheaper nor more efficient, but would destroy flexibility, .thus damaging trade. He 'ays that banking is not a monopoly, but a highly competitive business. Dealing with resentment shown against banks by "exalted clerics," he suggests that their advocacy of nationalisation springs "from political prejudice which is incapable of coherent explanation."