The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1948. BRITAIN’S WHITE PAPER

Wanganui Chronicle, 28 October 1948, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1948. BRITAIN’S WHITE PAPER

IT is in the nature of planners to start optimistically and to grow cautious as they proceed with their plans. This is noticeable in the "White Paper just published by the Government' of the United Kingdom, a characteristic which they share with the planners of Soviet Russia. “The most surprising feature of the Government’s "White Paper referring to the European Recovery Programme is the extremely cautious forecast of the level of exports in 1948-49,” comments the London Financial Times. “In spite of the fact that exports reached 138 per cent, on the 1938 volume in the first quarter of the period (July-September) the estimate for the whole period is no higher than 137 per cent. (Certainly the hope is expressed that the actual level will be higher, but there appears to be no abounding confidence behind that pious wish). The Government in fact appears to be warning us that the present export volume can be sustained only with difficulty. This fear may prove only too well founded.” There is no need to stress the necessity for Britain to sustain her export drive, there is every reason why this should be increased There are basic requirements that must be fulfilled, however, before the export drive can be speeded up. Power and raw materials are the prime essential for manufacturing. "Without power man is reduced to manufacture in the true sense, namely, making by hand. Were this to become universal it is improbable that the present world population could be sustained at a subsistence level. The very existence of large masses of people depends upon the accessability to power by industry. The drive for raw materials is equally important with the supply of power. Raw materials for modern industry are never found in one place. Such a simple and essential thing as a telephone depends upon sources of supply which extends to every latitude on the globe. Cotton grown in the Southern States of America, the Sudan, or India, rubber from Malaya or South America, copper from Australia or the United States, lead from Burma or Broken Hill, porcelain from Staffordshire or Saxony, manufactured parts from Sweden or Canada, provide the major portion of the telephone which is handled without thought concerning its components by millions of people every day of their lives. Unless these materials flow into the United Kingdom unemployment results there. It has been the custom in some groups to speak of the extraction of these raw materials from the less advanced countries as “exploitation for the benefit of capitalistic countries,” but unless the more advanced countries receive these imports they cannot export and by exporting is meant sending back the products of industry to the source countries from whence the raw materials have been drawn. It has been the policy of those who are conducting the disruptive movement throughout the world to present the denial of raw materials to the advanced countries as being of some benefit to the source countries. But unless these countries sell they cannot buy and they certainly cannot make the things that they desire to buy. The breakdown of Britain’s industries not only reduces profits to those who provide the machinery and the power to work it and the supplies that are needed to purchase raw materials, provide wages during the process of manufacture and sale and to those who run the risks of loss, but such breakdown of industrial activity spells unemployment, reduced production and lowered living standards. But it also spells misery in the raw material producing countries. The raw material countries are in the main countries that are unable by reason of the state of their organisation for production unable to produce much per hour per man employed. Hence low wages and long hours are a natural result. It is only wheij a country hi/ sufficient money saved up to enable it to equip itself with machinery, materials and power resources that the standard of living starts to rise and the hours of labour become shorter. "Without the saver all the labour agitation in the world will not produce the goods which go to make up comfortable living. In recent years, however, two elements have combined to discourage saving in the United Kingdom: high taxation which makes saving impossible for many people and low interest rates which makes saving unattractive to those who are so placed that they could save if there were sufficient inducement to do so. The result is that Britain today is on the underside of a satisfactory standard of efficiency in industrial production. The whole of Britain’s industries require to be reconditioned before lowered prices can make consumption more attractive or places it within the reach of more would be consumers. Given the incentive the savings would no doubt be effected to bring about the retooling of industry.

Unfortunately the Government has deduced that the implementing of its polie.y of socialisation must stand before a general improvement of the United Kingdom’s national economy. Hence it is that the coal mining industry has been nationalised and before experience necessary has been gained for the satisfactory exploitation of that industry under new conditions it is proposed to nationalise the steel industry. There may be sound reasons for taking this second step, but at the moment it is a questionable one and places an additional disturbance into the minds of the people most concerned. If steel is going to cost more in England than in other countries then those other countries will enjoy an advantage in the metal fabrication and engineering industries. Steel is not just steel: there arc various kinds of metal within that general category, each of which has its particular uses. Manufacturers are wondering how their supply of particular metal will be affected by the nationalisation proposal which is about to be implemented. It is not to be expected that an engineering firm will go in for extensive retooling until it knows whether the steel position will be satisfactory. Hence it' is that even given the financial facilities to carry out improvements in production there is doubt engendered by the Government’s policy as to whether such a step would be but a bigger gamble than is to be encountered in an average commercial risk.

The essential'step to be taken by the United Kingdom will naturally include a considerable measure of community planning. There will have to be priorities fixed beforehand in the national scheme, but while such plans if kept within limits will be helpful and even stimulating to carry them to the point where doubt as to the results on a national and monopolistic scale is engendered is to do a measure of harm which must be considerable notwithstanding it being incalculable.