Britain Climbs Despite Crisis

Northern Advocate, 1 December 1947, Page 5

Britain Climbs Despite Crisis

WELLINGTON, Mon. (Sp.)—Since the war the going had been steep and hard but the people had climbed a lot.

The High Commissioner for the United Kingdom in New Zealand (Sir Patrick Duff) said this in a broadcast address last night. In spite of the economic crisis a notable improvement had taken place in Britain, he said. “I am speaking generally, for in some respects—food for one—conditions are sometimes even harsher than in the war itself,” Sir Patrick stated. “If you are looking for the scars of war you will certainly see and feel plenty. “The fact is that we in Britain are still in the delayed action phase of the war. “The economic difficulties in which we are labouring are not in the least unnatural; they are attributable to the nature and extent of our contribution to the winning of the war in which we fought earliest, fought longest, fought hardest, sold the bulk of our foreign investments, sold the pasture to buy the horse, incurred heavy liabilities without thought for the future, and ‘threw our whole internal economy out of gear to achieve the most total mobilisation of war requirements for ourselves and for everybody else.” The unprecedented severity of the last winter had aggravated coal and food difficulties to an extent which, took a lot of catching up. , By a ferocious freak of weather the country had lost 4,000,000 sheep and lambs when they were needed most and the grain lost by short sowing through floods was equivalent to a month's bread ration for 45,000,000 people. “All these things are temporary phenomena—a matter perhaps, of a few vears,” Sir Patrick said. I am far from trying to under-rate them and the situation may get worse or even more harsh before it is better. “But what is a year or two, or even five years, in the life of a great for-ward-marching nation, which counts its future, as its past, in centuries ? ”