BRITISH ECONOMIC SURVEY

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25440, 11 March 1948, Page 7

BRITISH ECONOMIC SURVEY

“Grimmest Document Yei Issued” PRESS COMMENT ON 1948. PROSPECTS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, March 10. “Two things stand out from the economic White Paper for 1948, the grimmest document the Governittetit has yet issued,” says the “Fitiancial Times” in a leading article. ‘‘First, the Government is defending on Marshall Plan aid with a disturbing complacency. Second, Marshall aid by itself will not solve Britain’s btoblems. “The picture presented in the survey is of a country in the grip of world-wide fbrees before which so-called planning is virtually powerlfess. We now see that even With Marshall aid, as long as world prices remain as they are and as long as we pursue our present internal policies, we caii Only struggle along as we are.” “The 1948 economic survey brings black tidings,” says “The Times” in a leading article. “Britain, with other Codntries, is within no great distance of wOrse privation and worse unemployment if the world outside the Westfern Hemisphere cannot be set upon its feet again. “The list of proposed purchases abroad will only keep people in health and working efficiency and perniit ihetn all to work; but even with this programme of imports Britain will be perpetually Oh the brink of the kind Of brfeakdoWn which happened a year ago.

“Nothing less than a restoration of world trade can free Britain from her choice between a dollar pension and a griin decline.”

“The Times” adds: “The White Paper shows that wholesale longer hours offer no simple remedy, because all depends on the supply of material and power; but also that wholesale shorter hours have no place in British industry.

“The Goverhment now sees .that economic controls are not proof against strong and persistent inflationary pressure,” “The Times” adds. “Too .much faith is still reposed in .price control and in voluntary attempts to keep down incomes and coSts. public finance still is not properly hafnessed as the tool of national policy.” Sir S. Cripps to Broadcast The Minister of Economic Affairs (Sir Stafford Cripps) ■’.Fill broadcast on the economic crisis tb-morrow night. The White Paper forecasts a somewhat reduced standard of living for Britain in 1948, with an appreciable but not disastrous reduction in food and clothing consumption compared with 1947. J . ~ A large part of the 1948 fbbd import programme coinprises such things as fresh fruit, fresh and canned vegetables, and processed foods of tathet low nutritional value. These have been bought in “softer” markets, to give some variety to the British diet, in. place of Western Hemisphere food, which is to be cut. They do nbt make

up for the substantial reductions in consumption of staple foods. The expected expenditure on Germany is £7,000.000 for the first half of 1948. It was &79,OoO;000 in the whole of 1947.

The White Paper sets the target for the steel industry at- 14.000,000 tons, and textile workers are asked to produce 900,0001 b of cotton yarn arid to increase production iri woollens and worsteds. Farmers must also produce more, and more than 10.000 additional workers will be needed. Qf these many will be foreigners, including prisoners of war who have volunteered to stay on British farms. Military expenditure overseas, says the- White Paper, should drop from £211.000.000 in. 1947 to £76,000,000 in thq .first half of 1948. The attainment of the target of 14,000.000 ingot tons of steel in 1948 is nqt assured. Germany is the only significant source of scrap supply, and negotiations are proceeding to get 1,000.000 tons from there. Steel above anything else, apart from dollars, will be the limiting factor in 1948. Labour is unlikely to be in 1948 the limiting factor in economic activity as a whole, but labour targets for coal, agriculture, and textiles cari be reached only through a considerable movement of workers from one industry to another.