Press Praise And Criticism Heaped On Budget

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22917, 8 April 1949, Page 5

Press Praise And Criticism Heaped On Budget

(10 a.m.) LONDON, April 7. The Budget has been hailed by thoughtful economists as one of the most courageous ever produced by the Finance Minister of any country, says Reuter's financial correspondent.

Faced with a huge surplus, the Chancellor has increased taxes by about £35,000,000 instead of cutting them as almost everyone had expected. Thus he has been even more austere than his recent economic survey which had recommended that the disinflationary effect of the Budget should be maintained.

Most people had thought that even that recommendation was too austere. Note Taken of Criticism

Sir Stafford Cripps could claim that Britain had succeeded in her prime task of restricting her dollar expenditure to her dollar earnings and dollar aid. He had evidently taken notice of American and Continental criticisms of British imports and currency policies and had affirmed that Britain would not primarily rely on cutting imports. He was evidently alive to the growing competition in the export markets and to the fact that Continental countries were overhauling the quick scart that British exports got after the war. The correspondent adds that the Chancellor’s only sops to the business community were the repeal of the tonus issues tax and certain stamp duties, an allowance for the depletion of mines, including oil worked abroad by British companies, and a tax change for Lloyd’s underwriters.

The Financial Times, which heads its Budget editorial “Penal Servitude,” says that Sir Stafford Cripps seems to have succeeded in producing a Budget which will please nobody.

“To the taxpayers he offers the prospects of penal servitude for life.

"Sometime Or Even” “Not only are there to be no worthwhile remissions this year; there will be none next year, sometime or ever,” say the article. “Naturally the taxpayer—and particularly those payers who happen to be investors whom the present system heavily discriminates against—will not be enamoured of such a prospect, but the members of the Chancellor’s own party will not like this Budget either. Sir Stafford Cripps seemed to keep his most schoolmasterly admonitions for those of his own party who had a wild idea that they could have increased social services and lower taxation (and, presumably, lower cost of living) at one and the same time.

:■> The Budget was the inevitable result of carrying out Socialist policies and even they, if the Chancellor was right, had reached their limit now. In fact they had gone a little beyond it and on the subsidies, the Chancellor had already taken one pace backward. The Daily Mail quoted Sir Stafford Cripps’ assertion that there is no immediate possibility of a further redistribution of national income by way of taxation.

The newspaper added: "What he means is that ‘the rich’ have been squeezed dry and that the middle classes have been stretched to the limit. They can do no more.” “Strong Fare Offered” The Chancellor’s increase in the cost of living will be immensely unpopular, the paper says, but as an honest man he had to face that risk. The price changes will lead to a renewed demand for wage increases. The Times commented that the Budget, in hard facts, contained only one minor concession in the general field of taxation—a reduction of beer ‘ duty by Id which' was overshadowed by increases in the prices of meat, butter, margarine and cheese. The newspaper added that taxpayer might well wonder how it was that the Exchequer, after 12 months of apparently solid economic progress, was in such a condition that nothing' more palatable than this stony fare could be offered. The Manchester Guardian said that for Sir Stafford Cripps to have continued to maintain austerity in face of the unrealism and the growing political opportunism of the Labour Left was the bravest of all his decisions. "This, as least, is the beginning of financial sobriety,” the paper added. The Daily Herald says the Budget’s message is that although the nation has done magnificently in its efforts to overcome, the economic handicaps inherited from the war, it cannot yet afford to relax either in effort or selfdenial.

Chancellor’s Courage Praised

The Daily Telegraph said there would be honest satisfaction that a Socialist Chancellor had, at last, had the courage to warn his party against profligacy in public spending. The newspaper added that the Budget could hardly be other than unpopular with Sir Stafford Cripps’ own party and might even provoke a storm, but it must be acknowledged that Sir Stafford Cripps, generally speaking, had set public policy above party clamour and political prejudice. The Daily Telegraph’s political correspondent says there can be no doubt that Sir Stafford Cripps faces a storm when the Parliamentary Labour Party meets today. The Socialists feel that a Id a pint off beer, coupled with the reduction in the duty on light wines, is going to make it even harder for them to explain the increased price of meat, cheese and margarine to housewives. They face the prospect with undisguised dismay. It also felt that the Budget throws a great burden on trade unions in continuing to resist pressure for wage increases.

The correspondent concluded: “It is no exaggeration to suggest that the Budget may split the Labour Party. The Communist Daily Worker says that all sections of the working class movement must unite to fight the iniquitous Budget which adds new burdens to every section outside the great monopolists and. indeed, puts the heaviest burdens on the poorest families.