RECOVERY BY BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25608, 24 September 1948, Page 7

RECOVERY BY BRITAIN

MODERATE ESTIMATE BY T.U.C. COUNCIL

“INCREASED EXPORTS STILL NOT ENOUGH”

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 22. The General Council of the Trade Union Congress has issued a corrective statement after last week’s cheerful review of Britain’s industrial recovery by Sir Stafford Cripps. “Britain is now producing about 2U per cent, more than before the war. but that does not necessarily mean that her people are working 20 per cent, harder or 20 per cent, more efficiently,” says the T.U.C. “The increase is mainly due to more people being at work.

“The increased exports are still not enough to pay for what Britain buys abroad, and th® gap is being tilled at the moment by Marshall aid. How well Britain is going to live when Marshall aid is ended depends on how much the nation is producing and how much can be sold overseas. If the rate of production and exports is no better then than at present Britain will not be as well off as she is now.

“To improve .living standards production must be stepped up by more manpower or more machine power, or by more intelligent use of the present labour force and machines. A thorough spring-cleaning throughout British industry would give tremendous results and lead to an all-round improvement in the standard of living.” “This is a remarkably bold statement, and it shows the effects of Sir Stafford’s teaching and of his courageous attempt to face the facts at Margate.” says the Labour correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian.” "His own remarks in Canada suggest that he himself is a little concerned lest his review in Parliament should have encouraged false hopes. The . Trade Union Congress has also seen this danger, and it has loyally tried to do for the Chancellor what he is not in England to do for himself. "Cheerfulness is an admirable tonic, but it is not an alternative to realism. There has undoubtedly been some risk that last week’s cheerful statement would arouse new trade union suspicions that hardships and self-denial were no longer justified.” '