RETURN TO FREEDOM

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 254, 24 July 1944, Page 4

RETURN TO FREEDOM

Some Controls Needed

“The Government has been responsible for directing the economic changes from peace to war, and must accept the re sponsibilities of readjusting conditions from war to peacetime ■ requirements,” said the chairman of the New Zealand' Sheepowners’ Federation. Air. James Begg, Dunedin, at -the annual meeting last week.

Mr. Begg said that if the aim was to promote order and common prosperity in a post-war world iu which there was a high degree of personal freedom and individual initiative, they must remember that nothing produced a dictator more quickly than a state of chaos. For that reason it would appear that they must look, after the war, for a controlled relaxation of war restrictions, and that th? controls that they must accept and tolerate were those intended and honestly calculated to hasteu our return to freedom.

“.Spending today is drastically limited by taxation, rationing, and other restrictions,” he said. “It will be-realized that, should all restrictions be removed immediately on the declaration of pence, and before goods could lie produced, prices would soar. Therefore a measure of control on investments, .spending, and prices can be expected and recognized as necessary aids in preparing sound conditions precedent to the relaxation of and ultimate removal of Government control. An increase in consumption goods as quickly as possible postwar will be the first necessity." Air. Begg added that the question arose .'is to whether the Government, when shorn of its ample wartime authority, would have sufficient: powers to enable it to exercise the control necessary to secure the quickest relaxation of wartime restrictions, or would chaos threaten and force regimentation on us indefinitely ?