EMPIRE TALKS ON PLANS TO MEAT CRISIS

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 September 1947, Page 6

EMPIRE TALKS ON PLANS TO MEAT CRISIS

LONDON, August 31.

“At long last comes the news for which all Britain has been waiting,” says the People, which, like several other London Sunday newspapers, leads off its front pages with a report from Canberra that an Empire economic 'Conference will be held in September! The diplomatic correspondent of the Observer says: “The talks' may be expected to seek ways and means around the non-discrimination article of the American loan agreement, so that Britain can buy the goods she needs from the sterling area. If the Dominions can quote lower prices than those in the United States, which are rising rapidly, non-dis-crimination does not apply. “Other agreements may be concluded on the lines of the 1946 Canadian wheat agreement. ‘Tied’ loans may be granted for British use only in the Dominions making the loans.” Government Attacked Although -the Lord President of the Council (Mr Herbert Morrison) had said that Britain’s greatest need was time, there was no commodity of which the Government had been more extravagant, said Mr Anthony Eden, in a speech at Carnoustie. The Government for two years had derided every warning, rebuked every counsellor, and ignored all danger signals. “For two years we have had a Government without a plan,” he said. “Now we have a Government in search of a plan. That is the extent of our progress.” Britain must do everything possible to help General Marshall’s Western Europe plan, said Mr Eden. “Such a plan must take.full account of our position as heart and centre of the British Commonwealth,” he continued. “The possibilities in the development of trade are immeasurable. It is essential that article 9 of the United States loan agreement should not stand in the way of such trade.” Direction of Labour

“We shall, if necessary, take unusual powers for the direction of labour, but these powers are not going to be used as they were during the war,” said the Minister of Labour (Mr George Isaacs) at Carlisle. “Men will not be sent from a job in one town to a job in another. We shall use our powers to keep people in the town in which they are living, and will put men on jobs they are used to, but if an engineer is engaged in a shop making luxuries, he may have to go to a shop making essential goods for export.”