BRITAIN’S PROBLEMS

Grey River Argus, 21 September 1945, Page 3

BRITAIN’S PROBLEMS

SPEECH BY SIR PATRICK DUFF PA. CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 18. That there was no need to be despondent over Great Britain s prospects or to doubt the lichness of their potentialities, was emphasised by the new United Kingdom High Commissioner (Sir Patrick Duff) in speaking at the annual meetings of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce to-night. The idea that Britain would emerge from the war exhausted or permanently disabled arose partly from a misconception of the strength of her innate resources and partly from economic theories which had ceased to be applicable to pre-sent-day conditions, he said. On the contrary some practical considerations showed that provided there was a general restoration of the world's economy and prosnerity came back to the world at large, Great Britain could, even on a purely material plane, actually be stronger after the war. People talked of the damage done by bombing but physical repairs could be completed in a shorter time 'han one would expect. In November 1942. out of 2,750,000 houses damaged to that date, 2,500,000 had been repaired and were occupied. Situated geographically as Britain was, she would play an outstanding part in world maritime transport and that went for air transport also, nor' would the people, he said, be lacking in vitality. Severe as rationing had been, scientific diet had kept the people fighting fit. Some who had doubted Great .Britain’s industrial future, he added, believed that her trade and industry were stagnating between 1923 and 1937, yet the total employment in industry and trade between the wars increased by 25 per cent. There had been shakings of heads about “basic” industries, but basic industries often shifted. Some of the future ones were probably starting in laboratories to-day. Optimum utilisation of coal was forming a subject of intensive research in Great Britain and her deposits would always provide a supply of power to her industry, while byproducts would no longer be wasted. The people had a confident hope that by hard work and enterprise ’they would be able to repair the ravages of war and maintain a high standard of living and of social security.