GREAT STEP FORWARD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26980, 15 January 1949, Page 7

GREAT STEP FORWARD

BRITAIN’S RECOVERY EFFORTS TRIBUTE BY MARSHALL AID ADMINISTRATOR NZPA Special Correspondent LONDON. Jan. 13. A tribute to Britain’s efforts for recovery was paid by Mr Thomas K' Finletter, who is America’s Marshall Aid administrator in Britain, when speaking to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. Within the short period of the eigh’ months during which the recovery programme had been in operation, he sail!, the British people had made great strides forward. “Home consumption has been held down to a level which must command the admiration of anyone who knows what it amounts to, - ’ he said. “ The aim is to maintain an approximately level standard of home consumption for the rest of the recovery programme’s four-year period. Call it austerity if you want. I think in. a sense that it is a misnomer. It is better to call it a self-discipline programme It is not austere to the extent that it damages the health of the population On the contrary. I am told that the measures adopted for the feeding of the children guarantee that the next generation of British citizens will be the healthiest in the world. “A Masterly Performance ” “ It is a masterly performance, this austerity programme of Seif-discipline. When I speak these words of praise 1 am addressing thorn to the British people. I do not believe that any of these things'would be possible except among a people willing to carry on after a long and exhausting war very many of ihe limitations that, were imposed on them at the time, of actual combat. Only this quality of determination to see it through and willingness to discipline oneself, make possible the recovery of the country I feel it so deeply that I hope you will allow me to break the thread of my talk to say these things. “It has been a tremendous thing for me, a foreigner, to observe that instead of being able to enjoy the luxury and ease which so often com? after a military victory, the people of Britain have been compelled to face up to the most difficult conditions! And they accepted the situation so gloriously that one cannot help but feel that statistics are not important in this, but that what is important is the great national resource of the British people —their character." Tribute to Leadership The Manchester Guardian, commenting on the speech, says it is pleasant to haVe Britain’s efforts praised 'so generously, but European co-operation must not be hampered by selfrighteous comparisons. It needed only the fuel crisis and the run on the £ in 1947 to make the British peopie realise the necessity of living within their income. The paper adds that though Mr Finletter would not wish to comment on British politics his praise of Britain’s .efforts implies a tribute to the leadership of Sir Stafford Cripps in economic affairs. The Daily Herald commented:. “We hope Mr Winston Churchill will read and consider Mr Finletter’s words. Ws hope they will make him uneasy, even ashamed, about some of the speeches which he has delivered in recent months to the detriment of Britain's prestige.”