DOLLARS AND STERLING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 10, 11 July 1949, Page 4

DOLLARS AND STERLING

Sir, —According to the N.Z. Herald June 9, 1949: Production is the road to prosperity! But is it? We have the reflection of coming events here; when we view the frustration which the British people are undergoing—production being maintained for export at the expense of the living standard of the nation. Sir Stafford Cripps warned the delegates at the Constructional Engineers Union Conference not to be drawn into a pincers movement. The Tory machine provided one arm of the pincers, and the Government the other!

But who is probing the chaingang into the jaws? Sir Stfford says that the people could increase their standard of living, “only by production.”

This is fallacy No. 1, while under the Marshall Plan. Falacy No. 2, that Government expenditure was high because of Defence, Social Services and Food Subsidies! This could be met by Treasury Bills, but what do we find, international finance abroad and bureaucracy at home, restricting overseas distribution and home consumption and/or production to 'below the needs of nations.

So now you have it; and it is something we have ■ long suspected. The British ration is regulated not so much by food shortage as by a financial policy. Editorial, “Daily Mail” July 10,' 1946. Note, the policy of the Marshall Plan—Article 9 of the American Loan Agreement prohibits Great Britain from obtaining from her Commonwealth of Nations the goods and foods which dollar scarcity prevents her from buying from the States. Yours etc., W. BRADSHAW.