LABOUR MEMBERS CRITICISE NEWSPRINT CUT

Evening Star, Issue 26156, 18 July 1947, Page 5

LABOUR MEMBERS CRITICISE NEWSPRINT CUT

. The executive of the London Society of Compositors has called- a publio meeting for July 31 to support the resolution of the allied and printing trades asking the Government to restore the cut in order to avoid unemployment and maintain essential contracts with Canadian paper manufac- ■ After Sir Stafford Cripps had replied in the House of Commons to a series of questions from both sides of the House querying the need for the newsprint cut,- the Speaker agreed that the cut should be debated this, evening. Sir Stafford Cripps told questioners that he would not have the position reinvestigated now, be- ■ cause Cabinet had decided that a reduction in-imports must be made. He would be ready to re-examine the matter in.light of the general balance of payments position in 1948. ' Intervening in the debate this even-, jpg, Sir Stafford Cripps said the Government regarded the cut in newsprint purchases from dollar countries as an unfortunate necessity. It hoped it would last as short a time as possible, but the Government could not neglect the contribution the cut in

(Rec. 11.10 a.m.) LONDON, July 17. Cabinet discussed the newsprint cut, which means thkt newspapers on July 21 return to their war-time size of four pages. Reuter's lobby correspondent says there is an impression in the lobbies that Ministers, to some extent, are divided on the subject of newspapers, and stress that the dollar saving will be only £1,000,000 in the next six months.

newsprint Would make towards helping to stave off “ the time when we shall have run out of dollars.” The Government originally hoped to save £3,000,000 worth of paper. The Government recognised that it could not make a cut which would have reduced newspapers by more than One page. The estimated saving for the year would be between £2,000,000 and £3,000,000. Sir Stafford said the position with regard to dollar exchange might be better at the beginning of next year. If so, Britain would be in a position to buy more paper. The Governmet would ultimately improve the position for the Press rather than make it worse. The only other things which could be cut from. dollar sources were food, machinery, and films. The Government was taring power to deal with films. “ If the Government thought it had made a mistake it would not have the slightest hesitation in retracting,” he said. ’ < . Mr Anthony Eden said the saving represented less than one day’s expenditure of the Canadian and American loans. “It is perfectly apparent that the cut niakes no significant, contribution to our problem,” he said.