NEWSPRINT SUPPLIES CAUSE GREAT CONCERN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22647, 26 May 1948, Page 5

NEWSPRINT SUPPLIES CAUSE GREAT CONCERN

(11.30 a.m.) LONDON, May 26. The President of the Board of Trade, Mr H. Wilson, said in the House of Commons today that the newsprint supply position was causing the Government great concern. The newspapers were consuming about 355,000 tons a year but us a resuit of cuts made in 1947 imports of Canadian and Newfoundland newsprint were about 104,000 tons against the 180,000 tons previously contemplated. The main feature of the present position was the lower rate of imports and the extremely low level of domestic stocks. Mr. Wilson said it would be wrong to pledge a definite programme for a Canadian newsprint order and place in greater danger supplies of foodstuffs and other essentials. Britain’s newsprint supplies in 1949 from all sources should enable the present consumption rate to be fully covered even if an increase was not possible. It was not possible to say what size the British newspapers would be in 1949. If the dollar position meant Jess newsprint from North America in 1949, that did not mean a cut in newspaper sizes. Mr. Wilson said the Government's ambition was to increase newspaper sizes from the present four pages dally to four pages one day and six pages the next as soon as possible. . He hoped this would be done in 1949 if it was possible without a sacrifice of food and a further drain on gold and dollars. Mr. Wilson announced an increase in the newsprint supply for periouicals by 3i per cent.