GOVERNMENT OF BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26031, 7 February 1950, Page 5

GOVERNMENT OF BRITAIN

LABOUR REPLY TO MR CHURCHILL CONDITIONS COMPARED WITH OVERSEAS LONDON, February 5. The British Attorney-General (Sir Hartley Shawcross) to-day replied to criticism of the Labour Government by the leader of the Conservative Party (Mr Churchill). “In his love of rhetoric, Mr Churchill blames the Socialists for the fact that the value of the £ sterling has fallen by 18 per cent.,” said Sir Hartley Shawcross. “If he had been realistic he would have told you that in the great free-enterprise America, during the same period, the value of the- dollar fell by 24 per cent. “He praises Germany, but fails to remind you that unemployment there is running at nearly 2,000,000. He would have been more faithful to facte if he told you* that the latest report of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe said: ‘Among the important industrial countries of Western Europe the United Kingdom is the only one where recent developments in industry may be said to be wholly satisfactory.’ ” Sir Hartley Shawcross said that the first and foremost reality which Britons must face was the problem of balancing foreign trade. “It is not a bit of use talking about taxation cuts, more food, and everything else which the Tories are vaguely promising, unless we solve this problem,” he continued. “The Tories talk nonsense about ‘setting the country free.’ Without the existing controls we might have a temporary sort of paradise for plutocrats and profiteers.

Remove import control and American cars, nylons, and other coveted things would, for a time, hour in, to the detriment of British industry and to increment our foreign indebtedness. Remove planning and controls and Production, and B ul industrial products would £S ta » y , flow a . way Ironl the difficult but vital export markets into the luxury markets here and on the Con-