PRICES AND PAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24555, 10 April 1943, Page 8

PRICES AND PAY

CONTROL IN AMERICA COMBATING INFLATION (Reed. 8.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 0 Taking stops to combat inflation, President Roosevelt has issued an executive order placing price ceilings on all commodities affecting the cost of living and forbidding further increases of wages and salaries, as well as changing jobs to obtain higher pay. The order asserts that price increases will not He sanctioned unless imperatively required by law. Wages will not be raised unless it is dearly necessary to correct low '-standards of living. I'he orders were sen £ to the Price Administrator, the Food .Administrator and the Commissioner for Manpower. They were described by the President as definite instructions to hold the line against inflation. A correspondent in New York points out that the anti-inflation programme of last October has been and still is under heavy fire both from the farm bloc and some groups of wage-earners. The President's new move seeks to strengthen the dyke against every attempt to break through. The President, he says, maintains that the only way to hold the line against inflation is to stop trying to find justification for not holding it here and there. "We cannot afford to take further chances," tho President said. 'We have already taken too many." Mr. Roosevelt also referred to taxation. Price and wage control and rationing are not enough to stop inflation, he maintains. Taxation is also necessary to mop up purchasing power, and ho urges Congress to get on with the task of devising new taxes. The Food Administrator, Mr. Chester Davis, told a press conference that 35,000,000.000 dollars surplus spending power must he recaptured by the Government to enable the present price and wage controls to combat inflation effectively. Mr. Davis recommended higher taxes and sharply-increased investments in war bonds to relieve the strain of too much purchasing power on the declining volume of consumer goods. He said this was no 10 per cent war.

STRONG CRITICISM BRITISH BROADCASTING "LACK OF DEMOCRATIC FAITH" LONDON. April S "We question the authority of the 8.8.C. and the Minister of Information, Mr. Brendan Bracken, to conserve the right of expression through the 8.8.C. for Government members and 'yes men' from various political parties," said Mr. J. 11. McGovern (Independent Labour —Shettlesbury, Glasgow), attacking 8.8.C. propaganda. "We get this one-sided hash which shows a complete lack of faith in the democratic situation. "Those selected to put over talks on religious matters are what I might call safe patriotic men, the sort of people who praise 80001b. bombs and hope they do God's work. No religious expression is allowed that contradicts tho idea of the State waging war. "It is a remarkable thing that the 8.8.C. states in its medical talks that all foods which are difficult to obtain have no food value, whereas rubbishy substitutes are stated to be of great value. This shows how the medical profession can adapt its requirements to the political need of supporting a Government which is waging war." Mr. McGovern added that abominable things were constantly said over the German radio about Jews, but no Jew was allowed to reply over the 8.8.C. "One hears the Dean of Canterbury and others protesting, but this is part of the general exploitation of the suffering of these people for the purpose of fighting the war." Mr. McGovern said that the manner in which speakers gloated over the massacre of Germans from the air caused a revulsion among decent people. "We can only say now that all moral protests against the bombing of London arose because we had insufficient planes," he said. "Once wo got them the moral objections went into the limbo. "This totalitarian radio instrument is being wielded for the benefit of the Government at the Prime Minister's dictation. Everybody seems afraid to face up to this individual. He appoints in every phase of public life those who can be depended on to carry out his wishes in every phase of political dictatorship. "The radio should be a national instrument for the propagation of every viewpoint, and unless the 8.8.C. is radically changed we will go headlong into the mistakes made on the Continent " Since the war started Britain, unlike Germany, has never been off the air, said the Minister of Information, Mr, Brendan Bracken, in the House of Commons to-day, replying to the debate on the B B.C. ft was believed the 8.8.C. had between 20.000.000 and 35.000.000 listeners in Europe. Any big news story it put out was known to most people in Western Europe, excluding Germany, within three hours. MINISTER IN LONDON MR. JONES MEETS MR. EDEN (Special Correspondent) (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, April H The New Zealand Minister of Defence. the Hon, F. Jones, together with the High Commissioner for New Zealand, Mr. W. .T Jordan, sat in the gallery of the House of Commons and heard Mr. Anthony Eden's statement |on his visit, to America. Mr. Jones afterwards met Mr. and Mrs. Eden and All - . Herbert Morrison. Mr.'Jones will shortly be addressing the Empire Parliamentary Association and will he the guest at luncheon of the Government.

CABLES IN BRIEF Canadian reinforcements for the Canadian Army have arrived safely at a British port. They included infantry, armoured corps, artillery and all other branches. German Cruisers Damaged.—A Stockholm message states that two German light cruisers are reported to have reached a Norwegian harbour badly damaged after an engagement with an Allied convoy. U-boat Survivors. —It is reported that German ratings who had abandoned their U-boat after it had been attacked by a British fl.ving-boat have been landed in the Canary Islands by a Spanish naval patrol boat. Late Lord Gaiway.— The late Viscount Gal way, former Governor-General of New Zealand, was buried in the family burial place in the grounds attached to his ancestral home in Serlby Hall, Bawtry, Yorkshire. A private simple service was held in a secluded part of the beautiful woods, and the interment was in the family vault. The family mourners were Viscountess Galway, her son and two daughters, Colonel •T. G. Lowfcher, D.5.0., M.C., and Mrs. J. G. Lowther, Lord Gahvay's sister-in-law,