ANTHONY EDEN URGES THAT PEACE MUST BE BRITAIN’S MAIN TASK

Wanganui Chronicle, 8 February 1950, Page 5

ANTHONY EDEN URGES THAT PEACE MUST BE BRITAIN’S MAIN TASK

LONDON, Feb. 6.—Mr. Anthony Eden, in a broadcast election talk tonight, said nothing concerned Britain more intimately than the preservation of peace. He added: "Mr. Trygve Lie has warned in the last few weeks that the authority of United Nations is at Its lowest ebb. That is grave news and we are all deeply anxious for the future. There can be no true sense of confidence and no lasting peace in the world until the nations respect and observe the standards of international conduct one with another.”

If Britain was to be respected and influential abroad she must be strong at home, not only in military power but in the character and purpose of her people. Britain’s hope for the future, Mr. Eden said, could only lie in her position as the heart of a frr/ Commonwealth and Empire and as a nation that could serve the world by the diversity and quality of the services it rendered.

Discussing the "grave economic difficulties” facing Britain, Mr. Eden warned that the danger of unemployment was not far ahead. The time when ft was possible to sell British goods almost anywhere in the world regardless of price, already had come to an end, he declared.

Mr. Eden said: "German and Japan, ese competition is reappearing, and before long it won’t be a question of trying to find a market for our goods: it will be a question of how to obtain the food and raw materials needed to keep the people healthy and industries at-work. The only way to meet the situation Is to produce goods and sell them at competitive prices in the world’s markets, especially dollar markets.”

Criticising the Socialistic policy of the Labour Party, Mr. Eden said the party having made a beginning, rushed on from nationalising one industry to nationalising the next, heedless of their fate and that of the taxpayers. "The first thing we propose to do is reduce the burden the Government now imposes on industry and individuals. The present tax rates are intolerable in peacetime and can’t continue indefinitely without leading to bankruptcy.”

Mr. Eden said: "We want to see al’ forms of taxation reduced. Only too often now payment of overtime means an increase in the taxation rate. There must be some relief so that extra effort wins a fair reward. "Government spending must be reduced. It is over three times what the Government was spending before the war, yet the country is poorer.” Attacking Government controls, Mr Eden said he believed in a fifth freedom—freedom from frustration. Control over industry could hold back and discourage the efficient and enterprising. "Nothing is more important than to stop the £ falling. By scrapping a lot of Government bulk buying we can reduce the prices we have to pay for imported food and so reduce subsidies without raising prices. We believe an experienced trader can do the job better and more cheaply than the Government.”—Reuter.