BRITISH ECONOMY ON SOCIALIST LINES UNDER DEBATE

Grey River Argus, 12 March 1947, Page 5

BRITISH ECONOMY ON SOCIALIST LINES UNDER DEBATE

LONDON, March 10

Sir S. Cripps began the debate on the Economic White Paper and Government policy. He said Britain was now taking 42 per cent, of her imports from the hard currency areas and sending only 14 per cent, of her exports to them. The deficiency in Jhe general balance of payments was a direct result of Britain s war-time work for victory. Bombing had left the country acutely short of all kinds of buildings, and new machinery had not been available. There was a special deficiency in the dollar balances, as well as in the general balance of payments—another direct effect of the country s work for victory. People had become alarmed and depressed at the facts in the economic White Paper, because they failed to realise the effect of two world wars in one generation. Britain had not recovered from the first when the second broke out.

"It is no matter for surprise that we should emerge from the Second World War with a more battered and distorted economy and one for which the ineffective palliatives tried during the inter-war years would be even less effective,” Sir Stafford Cripps said. There would, of course, be no question of a sudden fundamental change of destination of all the exports, nor did the Government intend to produce a mass of new controls to enforce exports into the hard currency markets. The Government had a future long-term problem of markets, besides the short term, and it would be foolish to throw away, perhaps for c-ver, a good long-term market, which might be any Dominion, lor the sake of a temporary market in hard currency country, nor would it serve any useful purpose to divert British exports away from the good sterling market overseas to the dollar market, if the vacuum then created were to be promptly filled by exports from the dollar market. Britain’s 1947 export tofget was 147 per cent, of the volume of the 1938 exports, but the long term target was 175 per cent.. “Even this large increase of British exports will mean that unless world trade expands very appreciably, we shall need to win about one-third of the total world trade in manufacured goods —whch is impossible for anv one counry to do.” The Government intended to establish a staff for economic planning on the lines of the wartime jointproduction staff and create a new organisation, representing the employers, with whom staffs could confer. Departmental planning arrangements would also be strengthened. A full time executive head of the intdr-departmental planning staff, who would be a man of very special experience and attainments, would be appointed. The new organisation would cover the whole field of forward planning and would be especially , concerned with reviewing the task for the rest of 1947 in the light of developments. The inter-departmental planning staff would work in close relations with the central organisation. Industry would be brought into the planning procedure.