Very Late

Northern Advocate, 27 October 1949, Page 5

Very Late

Mr Eden said that if the Prime Minister’s statement had been made before devaluation, the remarks now made would have been a contribution.

Asked by Sir Stafford to explain why Mr Eden said “because economies in advance of devaluation would be an indication of your determination before you took a step which, by lack of reserves, you are compelled to take, and every economy you delay makes that economy not only less effective but more painful,” Mr Eden said that instead of preparing these proposals as they could and should have done in July or earlier, when they saw that devaluation was inevitable, members of the Government just scraped them together in the last fortnight and they represented the maximum which could be backed without Cabinet resignations.

Mr Eden continued: "When all this turmoil has subsided and if the Government takes no further steps, I suggest we shall find ourselves at the end of this financial year, spending about what the Government estimated we should spend last April. “That is the sum of all these drastic reductions.”

Mr Eden urged the Government to tell some of the countries which still expected a flow of “unrequited exports” that it was no use asking Britain to go on with them. Otherwise, he said, Britain would in the end crash herself and as she was the heart and centre of the sterling area they would be ruined too. Referring to Sir Stafford’s remarks on this subject, Mr Eden said: “I wish he had said it before. He has left it terribly late."