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Otago Daily Times, Issue 23953, 31 October 1939, Page 9

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POSITION IN BRITAIN GOVERNMENT CRITICISED "INEFFICIENCY AND RED TAPE" (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, Oct. 29. Trade returns reflect the dislocation of business occasioned by the outbreak of the war, but there is every reason to expect the next batch of figures will show a substantial improvement. The position is improving every day, through the successful organisation of convoys and the acceleration of granting export licences, though the latter are still the subject of bitter complaints. The outcry against bureaucracy is becoming formidable. It originated in city business centres and the provinces, and has now been taken up by the popular press, in which there are articles every day on “ Government Inefficiency ” and “ Red Tape.”

“There seems no doubt that Whitehall’s ‘pale pink Socialism’ is hampering business throughout Britain,” says the Investors’ Chronicle, which points out that the metal exchange is insufficient to pay the expenses of a single one of its members, Similarly, the London wool market is allowed to cool its heels in expensive inactivity. There is similar discontent over the working of Sir John Simon’s excess profits taxation, as the mass of evidence accumulates. It is retarding recovery and penalising enterprise. This partly explains the failure of equity shares to stage really substantial rises. Investors are afraid that Government interference in business and the regulation of .prices will hinder efficient management, while taxation may rob shareholders, not merely of jam, but of bread-and-butter dividends. Thus, it is not surprising that the market recovery during the week has centred in giltedged securities, which still have some distance to go, even if the Government is aiming at only 3| per cent, long-term rates.