REACTIONS IN BRITAIN TO WHITE PAPER

Wanganui Chronicle, 26 February 1947, Page 5

REACTIONS IN BRITAIN TO WHITE PAPER

DIVERGENCE OF OPINION AS TO PLANS TO IMPROVE INDUSTRY

(From E. G. Webber. Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

Received 5.5 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 25 Following the week-end digestion of the White Paper, widespread differences of opinion emerge, both about the remedies it suggests and the ability of British industry in its present condition to achieve the required export targets.

Although the Trades Union Council is expected to support the Government’s general policy there obviously is considerable disagreement in the unions on the question of admission of foreign labour and the post ponement of wages and hours demands. Industrialists feel that with the best will in the world they may not be able to reach the 25 per cent, extra export production which the Government demands in order to reach a £120.000,000 export trade by the end of the financial year. The end of the present cold spell is by no means in sight, and it is emphasised that even when better conditions return it is difficult to predict how long it will take for the effects of the general dislocation and shortages to disappear. It seems obvious there can be no concerted response until the Government, as it proposes doing almost immediately, has negotiated a general agreement between employers and workers, and has produced a working programme which will correlate its various export and production targets with the practical capacity of industry.

FOREIGN LABOUR PROBLEM. One imediate effect of the White ! Paper may be to force the trader | unions to make up their minds I whether they will admit foreign | labour into their ranks or not Tne T.U.C. will hold a special meeting to discuss the White Paper on Wednesday, and Mr. Attlee will receive a deputation from the National Union of Mineworkers on Thursday. Mr. Arthur Horner, as mouthpiece of the miners, reasserted his opposition to the introduction of foreign labour when he addressed tne National Communist conference during the week-end. An indication of the miners’ lukewarm attitude to this form of recruiting may perhaps bs seen in the fact that so far only 33701 Poles of 42,000 registered as willing, I have been admitted into various min-1 ing “chapels.” In addition to suggesting that , miners’ wives should have priority in nylon stockings, Mr. Hornei' ' told the Communist conference (of which he is a member) that the miners will not tolerate “new I houses being built for a special foreign labour force while British miners “continue to live in slums." The “News Chronicles’’ political correspondent says that on Tnursda.i a miners’ deputation will ask Mr. Attlee to approve of special income tax 1 concessions to miners on the grounds' that they must be given specific in-! ducements to produce more There is I a disposition to construe Sir Stafford ! Cripps’ reference to the Government s [ approval of "labour direction by taxation” as an indication that this de-: mand may be granted. Another of the miners’ demands will ■ be for an assurance that the Govern-' ment does not intend to postpone the | operation of the Miners’ Charter,; which is due to come into effect on i May. As one clause in the Chartci provides for a five-day week, it will be ' interesting to know how the Govern-' ment will reconcile this demand with' its plea for increased production. It! will be interesting to know, too, how 1 the Government will meet the merit-1 able reactions of other unions to any) discrimination in favour of miners. i

The T.U.C. has not yet given any official indication of its attitude to the White Paper, but the “Sunday Times” predicts it will allow each union to decide for itself upon the question of foreign labour, and the postponements of wages and shorter Hours claim. Here again there are likely to be wide divergences. Cotton trade operatives have already informed Sir Stafford Cripps that they will not agree to work night shifts in the spinning industry, and pottery workers also have taken up a similar attitude. The unions claim that if night shifts are worked many married women at present employed in the mills could not work extra hours and keep their homes going. ’ BOTTLENECKS DEVELOP IN INDUSTRY Industrialists point out that as the result of the non-delivery of components and the shortage of steel and pig-iron, serious bottlenecks have been created which cannot be expected to disappear for some time. At present many foundries in the north-' east region have only sufficient coal to keep the furnaces banked- Sand for moulding is unavailable, and there are steadily growing accumulations of finished steel which cannot be moved, owing to the transport shortage. The wool trade claims that delivery dates already fixed at nine months ahead must now be extended to ’ a year, and that as a result may lose many orders. Reports from the Midlands indicate that even with the resumption of power supplies to-day, many large firms will not be able to work for more than two or three days a week until there has been considerable improvement in the coal dliveries. “The Times” this morning strongly supports the crticism of the amount allocated for re-equipment of factories, which it describes as inadequate, while other critics compare the 16 per cent, of the year's spending Budget to be devoted to restoring Britain's worn out industrial plant with very much greater expenditure upon social services and nationalisation plans.