SHORTAGE OF NEWSPRINT

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26266, 10 November 1950, Page 7

SHORTAGE OF NEWSPRINT

LOW STOCKS IN BRITAIN (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, November 9. The British newspaper owner Lord Rothermere has urged the Government to clear up newsprint difficulties with Canada and build up a stockpile for at least 12 months. Supplies must come from Canada, he told the House of Lords last night. If Britain, depending on the Scandinavian countries alone, was cut off from them the nation in less than three months would have no newspapers at all, he said. Lord Balfour declared that it was impossible for newspapers at' their present size to deal properly with home and foreign affairs. With the little space at their disposal, he contended, British correspondents were losing their influence in world capitals. Newsprint stocks were below the danger point and if Canadian deliveries could not be advanced there was a real danger of a further cut in the size of British newspapers early next year. The mass circulation morning newspapers in London are now down to four pages on one day and six pages on other days.

The Liberal peer. Lord Layton, declared: “Unless the United States is prepared for some degree of restraint there will be no material change in the newsprint situation for a number of years to come. They are consuming 6,000,000 out of 9,000.000 tons produced throughout the world and tneir consumption is rising.” Lord Lucas, for the Government, said that there was a world shortage of newsprint and all the dollars made available would not at the present moment get newsprint from Canada. Lord Lucas said that the President of the Board of Trade (Mr Harold Wilson) was consulting Commonwealth countries to see if they would release Britain from her immediate commitment to export to them 100,000 tons of newsprint a year.