NATIONALISING STEEL

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25638, 29 October 1948, Page 7

NATIONALISING STEEL

FIRST READING OF BILL IN COMMONS PROTEST BY MR IVOR THOMAS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. October 27. The Nationalisation of Iron and Steel Bill was formally read a first time in the House of Commons this afternoon. Mr Ivor Thomas, who resigned from the Labour Party yesterday because of his objection to the bill, told the House to-day tnat he thought that to bring in the nationalisation of iron and steel at the present time lyas “ a wanton, reckless act.” Mr Thomas said that doubts had grown in his mind in the last three years about some Ministers’ intentions and competence. He was also disturbed at v the immense gathering of power in the State’s hands. He said thgt the planners were planning a country “fit for zeros to live in.” The Government had created a paradise for football pools and bucket shops. A Labour member. Dr. H. Morgan, shouted: “You 1 dirty dog!” Mr Speaker made him withdraw the remark. A Conservative member, Mr G. Thornycroft, said he believed that Mr Thomas’s speech represented the view of hundreds of thousands who at the last election had voted Socialist. The electors had then rdally believed that the Socialist Party was concerned with individual liberty. Viscount Swinton, in the House of Lords, said that Socialism and nationalisation were not the answers to Communism. An efficient steel industry was now to be brought down to the dead level of other nationalised industries. The Parliamentary Bill (reducing the period for which the Lords can delay legislation) was to be rushed through to prevent the electors from expressing their opinion about steel nationalisation before it was done. Lord Halifax, in a speech at Leeds, said that the Labour Party had stated that the steel industry was inefficient 15 years ago. Therefore, to nationalise it now would be like putting a reformed drunkard into an inebriated home He was afraid that steel nationalisation would not be anything but eyewash or recklessness.