UP AGAINST IT.

Grey River Argus, 26 February 1917, Page 3

UP AGAINST IT.

■ '■ ' — — r* OVERCOMING TONNAGE SHORTAGE ~ / . ~~ ~~~ ~~ DRASTIC REDUCTION IN IMPORTS MR. LLOYD GEORGE '.S PROPOSALS ('•Keuter's" Telegram.; (Rec. February 24, 1.10 p.m.) LONDON. February 23. The House of Commons was' crowded tnose present including k£ Hon \V. F. Massey and Sir kobert Bprden. Mr Lloyd George in opening his speech said that the ultimate success ot the Allied cause depended lipon the solution of the tonnage dimculties. Ove.r 1,000,000 tons pr our shipping was* allocated to France alone, and a considerable amount to Russia and Italy, also a considerable amount Had been sunk. There was not only a shortage for the general needs of the nation, but also for military purposes. The nation must be prepared for dras-tic-sacrifices to cope with submarines, otherwise disaster confronted us. The tonnage problem must therefore be tackiSa ruthlessly and. promptly by naval, measures, building new ships, dispensing- with unnecessary imports, and increasing home food production. -*?OCKS VERY LOW Our foodstocks at present were lamentably low, not owing to submarines but tp the bad harvest. For the safety, of the nation we must make every; effort to increase the production in 1917. There \yefe a few weeks „ left in which to sow spring wheat, barley and oats. In order to induce farmers to plough pasture land immediately he proposed to guarantee the farmers a minimum price for a definite , period, while a minimum wage would be fixed for agri- £• cultural labour. Rent-raising would " be prohibited and the Board of Agriculture would enforce cultivation. He~ guaranteed that the minimum price for wheat per quarter would be 60s in 1917, 55s for the next two years and 4ss for the next three years. PROHIBITING IMPORTS Paper imports would be reduced to 640,000 tons; which would be half the present allowance. All: essential foodstuffs would be freelisted, but apples,., tpmatoes and certain raw fruits would be prohibited Oranges, bananas, grapes, almonds, and; nuts would be reduced to 25 per cent of the 1915 imports, and canned salmond would be reduced by 50 per cent; •= Mineral water would be prohibited and cpcoa and coffee tempor- : arily stopped as we had large, stocks of these commodities. The importation of foreign tea would be prohibited'while even the importation of Indian 'tea would be reduced to a certain extent. 'This wpuld save 900,000 tons. H,e regretted exceedingly the stoppage certain luxuries rrpm France and Italy. The output of beer would be reduced to 10,000,000 barrels, saving 000,000 tons-of imports for its manufacture, bpmts would be correspondingly reduced. The restrictions would be imposed immediately and steps would be taken to prevent speculative j buying and if necessary the ±ood Controller ■ would control commodities. If this programme were carried out, and those able to help in production did help there was not the slightest ;doubt that we could face the w orst the enemy could dp. APPEAL TO UNIONS Mr Lloyd George said that he was convinced after examination of the problem, and hearing what employers and workmen said,, that the output could very considerably be increased by an alteration in methods. Wherever payment by, results had been introduced there had been an increase in tfutput a the shipbuilding yards of from 20 to 40 per cent according to grade. Mr Lloyd George made a special*appeal to; unions concerned in shipbuilding to- consent to the introduction of these methods. In some yards .they I had already been introduced. It also involved an undertaking on the part of employers. If large wages were earned by the men it should result in a -special effort being made. No advantage must be taken of that to reduce the rate. He felt certain that if they had any intention of, doing anything of tfie kind not merely the Government but -the Commons would deprecate such attempt. It was essential to get as much work as possible out of the yards. not merely for building ships for the mercantile marine, but for craft to cope with submarines. Our shipbuilding capacity was the firr'eatest in the world and yet it was bare?" adequate for the gigantic tnsk-. The French and Russian contributions were yen- substantial, but i*° T*v»in burden fell on the shoulders of Britain, which could bear it successfullyright to the end. , TIMBER MATTERS . : Comincr to ihe qu^tion of inrrpps^r'. Spjne ■T>rod I 'ctiop. Mr Lloyd Georq-e - .'n*4d._ tTiat of t^e .6.400.000 tons of timber irrmo»-«-ed last vp*»** ? oo6.<vv> tor)«? was for pit props and the remainder '

'for the military forces here and in France. , He referred to the committee s suggestion pf an increased economy of iimoer. Arrangements were being -, made to carry out the suggestion. . 1 Another suggestion was oeing made that the army 111 France be made seltsupporting in this respect. . If we managed to secure a number of. forests I in France and labpur to cut it down it ■ would be an enormous saving ot tonnage in respect to timber, j ihe third method was that of developing home supplies and making ' Britain self-supporting, during the war. Not long ago this was done. That I was a question they were devoting themselves to and he believed that several hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of tons of Shipping could be saved. He appealed to woodmen and foresters to enrol the services of men for the army and assisting the State. He would then appeal tp the thousands of unskilled labourers to assist the foresters. , There was no branch of national activity where so- much tonnage could be saved as in cutting tim-: ! ber. . 1 ( IRON ORE Next, in dealing with iron ore^ Mr Lloyd George said that we are importing millions of tons yearly, and we . cannot cut down the supply as it is essential for , shipbuilding, machinery, munitions and agriculture. We must find ships for this purpose at all costs or diminish the. efficiency of the Army and Navy. That would be folly unles., the minerals were to be found in this country and there was plenty, of rather* low grade, but the quality good. It did not pay as a commercial proposition 1 and it was cheaper to get the better 1 clasps ore from Spain. But this was ' not a commercial proposition ; it was a proposition of getting ore at all. without using up tonnage. It involved au increase of blast. furnaces and more labour. There was no margin to the supply if highly skilled men worked the blast furnaces.' He specially appealed to both employers, and workers ' to assisf in this matter, for unskilled men must trust their employers. ■■■■-■ . ] BRITAIN'S AGRICULTURE ( Dealing with food supplies the ! speaker said that twenty years after the Corn Laws were abolished we pro- ; duced twice as much wheat as we Imported. Since then 4,000,000 or ■ -5,000,000 acres of arable land had.be- . come pasture. About half of the agri- 1 cultural labour population had migrat- . ed to the towns. No civilised country \ in the world spent less, or even as . j little, directly or indirectly as we did on agriculture. WORST HARVEST IN MEMORY v He wanted the country to know That ' the food stocks were lower than within ; recollection. In ,the main this was ' due to the worst harvest within i.Mf.ilection. Last year the crops .vere a j failure. TEis had had a very serious effect on supplies. Then, our tonnage \ being absorbed to such an extent in , war work it was essential for the : safety and life of the nation! that- we put forth immediately every • effort tp increase 1 production this year, otherwise the na- ' tioh may . have to choose between } diminishing ijts military-, effort or un- j derfeeding the population. The lack * of labour was partly the reason and ; prevented farmers from increasing cul- ' tivation. He promised to make an effort to meet this by not calling up 1 agricultural able-bpdied men, but the greatest obstacle was the timidity of farmers to cut up pastures. It was • no good arguing. The farmer must 1 Tie given confidence and we must cure. , the farmer of his "plough fright," \ otherwise, we wpuld not get .crops. He 1 did not believe in prices going down immediately after the war. ' Germany after the war would be a greater purchaser than ever, because her land had been let down. That was true of the whole of Europe. The crop-' raising land of Europe would not raise ] as much per acre as before the war. i It had fyeen impoverished and had become unclean, and it would take years \ to make good the harvest raising soil 33 before. The demand for foreign lfood wpuld be greater than ever. He . thought ther« would be high prices for ' some time after the war, but he could ; not persuade the. farmer of that. It * was necessary to persuade him of it * and to do so within the next feyv days, He mentioned several corollaries to the guaranteed prices, . including a f minimum wage for agricultural la- I bourers, no rent raising, and power to t enforce cultivation. £ GUARANTEED PRICES <* s The guaranteed prices for oats for ! 1917 would be 38s 6d, and for 1018 to igig; 42s 6d, for 10.20 tp 1922, inclus- £ ive. . The guaranteed price for potatoes this year would be £6 per ton. r ,He hoped after these guarantees that t the farmers_would put their backs into it and help to defeat the greatest menace that ever threatened the l country. 1 RESTRICTING IMPORTS As the measures he had so far outlined would not materialise for months ne had to consider what the nation could no without them. Reviewing the committee reports regarding dispensable an mdespen sable articles he would ' deal ftrst with paper, which absorbed k a. good deal of tonnage. He expected ' T the restricted imports to be distributed > equally by the printing and packing '! trades., 1 lTi e importation of printed ; matter books, and periodirals \vbuld VI , lbked a'toffether otherwise it ( would be ixn fair to our home tmde. ( 'In regard to foodstuffs, he said that 1 we. imported *a large quantity whiVh was non-essential to the national well- .1

being-, although very desirable. He outlined the ' various articles which wpuld be affected. (These are mentioned in another message). .We must to ,a .muct larger extent .depended upon home-grown oats . ; • ■•; • ' Taking all • these categories of" feeding, stuffs together, he said that- ne hoped to save over goo,ooo -tons per annum, which showed the extent to which we relied upon foreign countries for such commodities. : Then there were manufacture~d articles and-ar-ticles of luxury. -We would have tc stop the importation of- a very considerable n. umber of these. He regretted the stoppage' of importations from Italy and France. It wpuld He a blow to certain industries but we were driven to it not only for ourselves, but for the sake of France and? 'Italy. He was !■ sure that if these countries had to choose between the two- they would prefer saving the ships for other purposes. . MANUFACTURE OF LIQUOR Referring next -to importations for the manufacture . of liquor, Mr. Lloyd George .declared that he was .riot approaching* this, question from the standpoint of temperance or- national sobriety, howevpr desirable that might be, but purely as a matter of combating the submarine menace and guaranteeing the nation against the possibility of famine , and privation. From these considerations which he had indicated ,the Government had decided that it would .be impossible to continue to sanction the absorping of such an enormous tonnage for foodstuffs in grain as long as the nation was faced with ,the prospect of a shortage of essential foods. He had stated in IQI4 that there were 36,00,000 standard barrels of beer brewed in this country. . In 1916 that had been reduced to 26,000,000, a result partly due to 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 adults leaving Britain^ and not much beer being* exported to the Army in France. It was not possible to guarantee food for the country without taking -a deeper cut ■ into the barrelage, and we must reduce- it to 10,000,000 gallons. That would save nearly .600,000 tons ior feeding stuffs per annum, which was nearly a. month's supply of cereals. That was direct saving but indirectly in the shape of increased tonnag-e and the relief of congested. traffic on the railways, it would be greater. He recognised that he must guard against driving the population from beer to spirjts, which" would be a serious disaster. He was therefore imposing corresponding restrictions' on the supplies of spirits. CAN FACE THE WORST There were other restrictions such as leather in raw. hides, but he had given in- the main a summary of restrictions and he proposed to impose them imedjately. He appealed—to the House and the country to take them as a whole. "If all those who are called upon to suffer restrictions and limitations suffer them without complaint," he continued "then I can honestly say we can. face the worst the enemy can da. If' it were conceivable that the nation is not prepared to do land endure all these things, then I say with all solemnity that I do not know of a body of honourable men who will undertake to be responsible for on e hour for this terrible war." THE HUNS' INTENTION ' ' After referring to the immense demands made by the Aihes on tonnage, the Premier said that the Germais had concentrated upon building- submarines in order to destroy pur mercantile narine. They fully realised that that tfas the only effective way of puttingiut of action what they considered to 3e the most formidable item in the Alliance, but the Government was proposing measures which it thought Aouid be adequate. They mean an i inormous sacrifice on the part of every ' :lass in the . community, and Britain's aational grit was going to be tested. I lie went on tp point out that in the twelve months before the war 56,000,---doo tons of shipping had entered British ports. In the iast twelve months that had been reduced to 30,000,000 tons. The reduction was attributable almost exclusively to the fact that a irery large portion of the tonnage had been allocated to the Allies. DUTY TO THE SOLDIERS Mr. Lloyd George concluding his speech in the Hpuse of Commons regarding the restrictions and the consequent saving of tonnage said that there were millions of gallant -j'oung men in the various theatres of war facing torture,:' j^rror and ; death and - daring and doing-. They were the flower of the race and unless the nation was prepared to take its share in the sacrifices their bravery would be in irain. • It would be a crime, a black crime, for any Government to ask them to risk their lives in the coming conflict, if" they knew that the nation -be- : hind them was faint hearted and selfish. Their sacrifices would be- thrown away. For that reason he had.submitted to 'the 'House and to the nation these proposals which he hoped the na- ' fcion • would approve -• and endeavour to carry;>out with an unflinching , and ungrudging heart,Hon Walter Long on behalf , of the ' Premier announced that the- import- 1 ation of rum would be stopped and the importation df wines and Spirits wouid be reduced 75 per cent, compared with 10 -»3. :,-■";..... ..... . .,. . ._...■/.. . • 1 VOLUNTARY RATIONING Hon Walter Long : said that the voluntary rationing was to some extent..; being evaded. He warned the House against haste in adopting compulsory rationing lest worse should befall the country, as had already happened in Germany. He believed that if a, little time were allpwed the people would keep to . the rationing system. 1 The Dominions and colonies had .been ' affected by the restrictions and felt them heavily, but they had met the Government' in a spirit of extreme generosity •and iS g-oodwill. Regarding home production and the fixing of prices Mr. Lloyd George wished him to say that two years before the- period qf : six years terminated, the Government proposed that the "whole thing • be . recosidered with, a view. to settling, what would -happen when the six years expired As a practical farmer himself he would say that the prices for cereals named by Mr Lloyd George would not op.en to the farmers soich- 1 a golden prospect as 'would be likely to tempt the mto break up land that would be more beneficial to them under the hoof than under the plough. ■'- , . HttST. W. . RUNCIMA2TS CRITICISM PAPER STOCKS SHOULD BE , POOLED. (Ree. February. 25, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, February 24. Hon W. Runciman in a critical speech, said that the Premier 'a statement Was very* grave. Import!? w,erj3 • cut "down a year ago and it would have been nossible, to act more : drastically tlierii but it r was necessary to. have, -.a healthy ...public- opinio.ri, wiich could only be fostered "by the .^ress.. The Government, should carefully consider the accumulations of- paper, by wealthyconcerns and . arrange -for pooling the Paper supplies on an equable basis

OTHER GAZETTED ARTICLES. (Rec. February 25, 5.5 p.m.) ::....-.. LONDON, February, 24. In addition to the articles which Mr. Lloyd Geoi-ge mentioned, the " Gazette ';', prohibits the importation of agricultural machinery, antimony- ware t apparel (except waterproof), twoirks of art, basketware, books, printed matter r daily, : weekly or other periodicals (imported otherwise than in single, copies through the post), boots and shoes and materials therefor, brandy, cotton, hosieryj • clocks, embroidery, lace, fancy goods, artificial and fresh flowers^ raw fruit • (except lemons . and ,'bitt.cr oranges), glass • manufactures, hats t gloves,' hides, raw jute, leather linen (including lnanuf aetures) . matting, printer's colours, perfumery, . photographic apparatus, plated wire, rum, tinned, salmon and lobsters, silk manufactures manufactures, of skins, furs, fSoya beans, sugar, tea, typewriters, wine, all kinds of wood and timber (hewn, sawn, splint, planed, and dress- . The prohibition operates forthwith, The prohobition operates forthwith, but rdoes not -apply to goods imported under a Board of Trade license. :. The -speech .-gave rise to the impression jhat moat .imports would 1 be severely restricted. This was unfounded as the "Gazette" does not, mention meat. •