BRITAIN’S TARGET

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21980, 26 March 1946, Page 5

BRITAIN’S TARGET

GOODS FOR EXPORT £750,000,000 THIS YEAR FACING BIG DEFICIT LONDON. March 24. Outlining plans for Britain’s great production drive, the Lord President of the Council, Mr. Herbert Morrison, in a speech at Bradford, said the necessary imports .this year were valued at approximately £1,000,000,000. The export target for 1946 at present was £750,000,000. If this were reached, however, Britain would not collect payment for all of it this year, and when expenses for relief and occupation overseas were added it was certain that Britain would be facing a big deficit at the end of 1946. “In June, 1945, we had 5,000,000 men and women in uniform and 4,000,000 making war supplies,” he said. “We, by the end of 1946. expect to have 1,200,000 in the services, 500,000 on war supplies, and to have freed over 7,000,000 people .to join the drive for prosperity. “We calculate that, by the end of 1946, we shall have a working population of 20.000,000. This compares with 21,500,000 in June, 1945 but the number actually working for prosperity at the end of 1946 will probably be 800,000 more than were working in June, 1939.” Speaking of nationalisation of industries, Mr. Morrison said that probably 80 per cent of Britain’s industry and trade would be privately owned.