ARGENTINE RAIL SYSTEM

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25305, 3 October 1947, Page 7

ARGENTINE RAIL SYSTEM

CONTRACTS EXPECTED TO GO TO BRITAIN REPORTED EFFECT OF DOLLAR SHORTAGE (N.Z Press Association-Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, October 1. “The dollar scarcity is forcing the Peron Government to change its plans for modernising the Argentine railways,” says the New York magazine “Business Week.” “Heavy orders had been placed in the United States for locomotives and passenger and freight cars. In cases where work has begun delivery will be taken, but contracts frdm now on are likely to go largely to Britain. • “British electrical engineers are now in Buenos Aires and it is reported that they have a plan for electrifying Argentina’s railway system. “The British have what they think is a'hot sales slant, and if British ideas are acceptable Peron will forget about the United States and turn to Britain .because it is easier to pay in pounds than dollars.”

BRITAIN FEELING CRISIS

RESTRICTIONS START THIS MONTH PETROL, COAL, LABOUR DIRECTION (From A. W. MITCHELL, Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A ) LONDON, October 1. * With the arrival of October the people of Britain will begin to feel for the first time the_ direct results of the economic crisis. To-day sees the end of the basic petrol ration, the limitation of currency for foreign travel, a rise in the price of coal and railway fare§, and the start of the opening or X-ray-ing of letters to prevent illegal currency transactions by post. More is to follow. Next Monday the national plan for reducing industrial consumption of electricity by one-third will begin. This will mean that unless industry reduces its consumption between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. there may be wholesale electricity cuts. It .had been expected that to fit in with this rationing of electricity the plan for staggering working hours would have been announced, but this is not likely, to be ready until the end of the week. From next Monday the Control of Engagement Order comes into ‘ force, by which people applying at labour exchanges for work may be directed into essential industries.

To-day Mr Attlee is meeting Trades Union Congress leaders to discuss wage rates and the possibility of a cut in food subsidies.

End of Private Motoring The changes are going to affect people directly throughout the country and some have not been well received. One is that the removal of the basic petrol ration spells the end of private motoring. Though this will not occur until the end of November, by which time all stored petrol must be used, there have been protests all over the country and scores of complaints. Whatever else this removal of the petrol ration may mean, it is certainly going to provide the travelling public with additional discomforts during the winter, not the least of which will be longer queues for buses, trains, and trams.

At the same time, passenger fares on the railways have increased by 16& per cent. This is the result of the higher prices for coal, which has been carefully hoarded by householders through the summer >to last them through the winter. Houses are now also rationed for coal. The latest reports indicate that Britain should start the winter with stocks of 15,000,000 tons of coal, or 4,000,000 more than last year. Whether prices for a wide range of goods are to rise will not be known until the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Dr. Hugh Dalton) announces details in his autumn Budget, for it is now generally accepted that there will be an autumn Budget.