POST-WAR TASKS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 126, 30 May 1942, Page 7

POST-WAR TASKS

EXPAND INDUSTRY Stifling Of Enterprise Must Be Avoided British Ollicial Wireless. Rec. 2 p.m. HI'GBY, May 29. The views of industrial leaders on future reconstruction are set out in a report to the Board of Trade by the Federation of British Industries. The report stipulates that the peace-loving nations must take a permanent interest in curbing aggression otherwise the economic structure will be founded on quicksand. New methods and a positive policy will be needed, the report added, for the changed economic conditions and the present Allied co-opeiation are the starting points for wider international co-operation. The immediate post-war task will be to provide for the stricken countries, followed by re-creation and economic systems with a view to achieving world prosperity.

A common policy between Britain and the United States is essential, and close contact must lie maintained with Russia and China. A basic principle of reconstruction will be increased world purchasing power, and although some regulation of production may be necessary, control and restriction cannot form the basis of prosperity. The Government should immediately adopt a policy of building adequate reserves, and control of industry should continue after the war as long as nccessary. Further permanent control should be in collaboration with industiv.

The danger of stifling individual effort and private enterprise must be avoided, and the report stresses the importance of prosperity in agricultural industry and the need of a sound polity, industry is prepared to rcconsider the implications of industrial organisation, it says, but the Government must define a definite attitude towards trade associations and pursue a consistent policy towards them. Special importance is attached to stability of exchanges and to the future financial policy being based primarily on the interests of industry and commerce. The Government should fully consult industry.