DIFFICULT DAYS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21961, 4 March 1946, Page 4

DIFFICULT DAYS

BRITONS_RESTIVE MORE GOODS WANTED ATTITUDE TO RUSSIA LONDON. March 1. The call made by Mr. Attlee tip all sections of the British public to join in a campaign for prosperity underlines the difficult period through which the country is passing. Both at home, where the most irksome phase of reconstruction is now being experienced, and abroad, where riots in Egypt and India and the continual booming of Russian anti-British propaganda contribute additional complexities to the troubled situation, the prevailing colour is grey. Mr. Attlee's appeal has been received with reservations. It was delivered to a thinned Commons, with the Prime Minister’s inherent reserve of manner, but, though the need for it was apparent ancl in some respects it is regarded as encouraging,- criticism is heard that it did not answer satisfactorily the speech made by Mr. Lyttelton. . It is not doubted that the appeal will be answered, but there is a general feeling that the public, war-weary and rather glum, will respond more readilv once general living conditions improve. “Gratify Home Trade”

While the necessity for export trade is realised, there is a steady growing belief that the best way to stimulate its volume is first to gratify a substantial proportion of the home trade. More goods in the shops on which people can spend their money and see some direct, immediate return for their efforts, it is felt, would be a far greater incentive to harder work than constant reiteration of Rritain’s pliant. The point has arrived, it is remarked, where the working man would just as soon spend the day in bed or at the races or a football match than buy another savings certificate. This is indeed admitted to be the case among coal-miners, who, dissatisfied with their food rations, which, they maintain, should be increased and disliking the pay as you earn taxation, prefer to take an extra day off weekly despite Government appeals. How far this attitude may spread is a matter of seme concern. Moscow Criticism Resented Initial surprise at Russia’s antiBritish campaign is developing into resentment. Suppression in Moscow of Mr. Bovin’s speech and his offer of a 50-year friendship pact, which were well received here, but full reporting of events in India ancl Egypt has made a bad impression. The Daily Herald asks bluntly why the Russian people were not allowed to know what Mr. Bevin said. It adds: “The people of Soviet Russia are not being allowed to read foreign news and views, and we consider that this restriction upon their knowledge is one of the great factors in the international situation to-day.” People are beginning to ask themselves where this attitude of Russia is leading. Snubbing of Britain, the imposition of Communism in the Russian zone in Germany, the Soviet wooing of Italy and the Arab League, and Communist influence in India, it is plainly felt, can only have a withering effect on British-Soviet relations. The prospect of world peace under these conditions is not regarded ns enchanting