Sacrifices Are Necessary

Evening Star, Issue 26184, 20 August 1947, Page 4

Sacrifices Are Necessary

The Prime Minister said that the conference would consider Britain’s plight, the steps she was taking to deal with the situation, ' and the means whereby New Zealand could assist. Britain was in her present position solely because of her heroic stand in the war, wheri she expended her wealth atid resources that we, with the rest of the world, might bo free. The conference had been suggested first by the : Federated Farmers, then by the R.S.A., and later by many other organisations, so that it met in response to the hpartfelt desires of the people as a whole. Mr Frasrir warned that New Zealand needed a spirit of sacrifice at the present time. Without it we could not hope to; effectively increase the assistance we were now giving Britain. The slowness of the European recovery and the severe winter had had

s a most serious effect on Britain’s proi gramme, and her shortage of dollars I had been aggravated by the fact that > iarge areas of the world were also short . of American dollars, and were seeking i to convert their sterling holdings into i dollars to enable them to buy Ameri- : Can goods. A great part of the world. ) had thus encroached on Britain’s doli lar resources. Britain had been carry- ■ i ini' the dollar burden of many coun- > tries besides her own, with the result • that she now'faced a dollaf deficit at > the rate of 810,000,000 dollars yearly* j and at present held scarcely sufficient resources to meet the present 'year’s debts. d Characteristically, Britain, on top of the weary years of war, had decided to face up to the situation. by all means., She was, for instance, - cutting food imports by £12,000,000 monthly, - and was seeking to increase her exI port' targets for 1948 to 140 or