ECONOMY OF BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25953, 5 November 1949, Page 6

ECONOMY OF BRITAIN

♦ -v * CHRISTCHURCH MAN’S OBSERVATIONS GOVERNMENT FLAMED FOB Difficulties The present political situation in Great Britain was discussed yesterday by Mr T. H. Lawn, a prominent member of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, who has recently returned from a four months’ visit to' England. “All the trials and tridttlations at the present time can be attributed to the present form of Government,” he said. When he was in England in 1945, during the election campaign, it was evident that there would be a very definite slide towards a Labour Government. PrepafapjM| were now being made for another election, but the high enthusiasm shown in 1945 was not evident to-day. “There is somewhat an air of bewilderment, of what has happened in the last month or two. The Socialist strong man. Sir Stafford Crlppß, Who stated that there would be no need for devaluation, but who has now actually achieved this, is losing caste iq tM eyes of the man in the street, particularly the worker.” said Mr Lawn. Th® worker was realising that these men, sent to Parliament to gain the endi of the worker, were actually gainins the ends of Socialism to which the very nature of the British worker could not subscribe. The recent treatment of the railway workers when they asked for higher wages, and were told that they could not have a raise, astounded workers who wehe finding that nationally-controlled industries were much harder taskmasters than any they came up against in private industry. “A matter of interest at present is the proposed nationalisation of steel industry. The ramifications o’ this project are beyond the comprehension of the average man in England. The workers in this liidultry do not want nationalisation," he saidThe Socialists knew that by nationalising the steel industry they would practically control the whole of industry in the United Kingdom. Mr Lawn said that he was not able to deal fully with the nationalising of the coal industry, but he had been informed that it had been far from a blessing to the community. “The worker in England to-day, is wondering who his friends really are.” “1 ffiake these remarks, fully conscious that I may be taken to task for making a highly politically-biased statement, but let us not fool ourselves. Let us face the facts. Britain is in a very bad way economically New Zealand was tied to the United Kingdom economically, and whatever took place in Britain affected this country. The real seriousness of the situation lay in the fight for dollars. Devaluation, which was the last in the gambler’s hand, was virtually a weak one. “One could not help gaining the impression that there was an awakening of the masses on the political front.”

Paying a tribute to the British people. Mr Lawn said they were on the whole working very hard to reinstate themselves in world trade. They had been told that they could have a lot of other things, and if their 'efforts could be channelled in the right direction this might be correct. » was evident that their efforts were being expended in the wrong direction, but the Government, to carry out its original policy of socialisation, security, and the nationalisation of industry, had been compelled to take the lin® it had, which a great section of the British people believed to be the wrong one.