Nationalisation Of Steel To Be Fought

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31112, 15 July 1966, Page 10

Nationalisation Of Steel To Be Fought

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 14. British steel firms about to be renationalised by the Labour Government would fight, the chairman of the managing-directors of one of the largest of them said in Wellington one of the largest of them said in Wellington. He is Mr T. R. Craig, of Colvilles, Ltd., Glasgow.

Mr Craig said the Government compensatory terms were inadequate and shareholders were not getting value for their money. Fourteen of the largest steel companies in the United Kingdom come under the Nationalisation Bill. This represented between 90 and 95 per cent of Britain’s steel-making capacity, Mr Craig said. It was a move of “doctrinaire socialism,” he said. The coal, gas, and electricity industries had already been nationalised and steel nationalisation was a move to give the Government complete control of Britain’s major industries. If nationalisation took place there would be a period of uncertainty over policy and development after the Government took control. Nationalisation would also cause anxiety to smaller steel companies not affected by the Government’s decision until they found themselves com-

peting against the Govern-ment-controlled firms. The (anxiety would continue till the Government's price policy was announced and there would be a tendency towards amalgamation, Mr Craig said.