Realities

Northern Advocate, 27 October 1949, Page 5

Realities

Mr Eden sad he could remember no occasion on which a statement by the head of a Government had fallen so far below the expectation of the nation’s need. He asked did the Prime Minister or his colleagues really believe that in the programme there was anything that could possibly enable the nation soon to stand on Its feet? There had been no plan and no order in the Government’s proposals. They represented the maximum that could be agreed without Cabinet resignations. Mr Eden renewed the Conservative Party’s pledge to support the Government in any necessary measures

“We have to consider whether these proposals, some of them so sketchy and undefined, most of them only effective in the distant future, and all of them adding to a sum which is very small compared with our vast expenditure, have any relation at all to the needs of the hour." Mr Eden said it was the next sixmonths that were going to be the vital period. It wag only if Britain could restore her national economy and confidence in herself that later economies would have a chance of bearing fruit at all. One sho"’ nt the position when thr made two years ago. and '■ now. "At tiia- i reserves stood at about $-1 OOU.iv'J UUU including the unexpended portion of the American loan." he said.

"Today, those reserves stand. I suppose. at about one-third of that