POLITICAL ROW BREWING

Chronicle (Levin), 20 April 1946, Page 5

POLITICAL ROW BREWING

\ (Rpecial Com-sponcliMit.)

British Labour Government's Plan control of iron and steel condemned

Received Friday, 7 p.m. LONDON, April 19. Britain's Labour Government 13 facing a first class political row ever it3 decision to nationalise the iron r.r.'I steel industry. Opposition, led by Mr. Churchill, is Supported by every national daily newspaper with the exception of the Lahour Daily Herald, which are vociferous in their criticism. The criticism takes this line: The reorganisation of the industry has been mending well since the thirties. It served the nation well when left in private ownership and management but controlled hy a Government Board. The Iron and Steel Federation was invited to submit a report on the modernisation and re-equ':pnient of the industry and this report has now been in tne hands of the Labour Government for some four months and the Government "weicomed" it as "an important contribution to the pianned deveiopinent of this ' basic industry." But it has not published the report. There has been no suggestion that the industry is less efficient tnan others or that its plans for modernisacion are inadequate. Today trade figures have demonstrated that iron and steel are the greatest individual contrioutors to Britain's rising exports, with the industry employing 223,000 people compared with 206,000 in 1939. Now the Government is going to establish an Iron and Steel Board whose first duty will be to consult tne industry about carrying out the:r own plan. The Government, it is declared, has no plan nor does it know how mucn of the industry it is going to nacionalise. It is pointed out that it will take at least oue year before any plan ean be drawn up and it is estimated that a Nationalisation Bill will not come forward until 1918. This delay, it is said, will cause paraiysing uncertaint/. It is pointed out tliat iron and steel is the most compiicated of ali xinlustries, with all big iirms engaged in subsidiary complementary uUo.uesses, and there are fears thac Government action will have gra/e reactiom throughout the industry as a wnole. Mr. Churchill has called Labour 's decision "a political ramp" and the Daiiy Mail's political coiresyondenc declares the Conuuunists have an explana- : tion. The Communists, he says, oeneve the Government's action is notuing more or less than a Mi:. ste/ial ptau to rally trade union support to their side m readiness for the annual Labour harty conierence at Whitsun, when the communist appeal for aililiainon will be received. "It is said," romarks the correspondent, "that tne Socialist Minislers are prepared to uo anything, even nationaiisj a vitai industry, to swiug the vote in their favour and thus provent the Communists vinmng afiiliation. This might, of course, oe denied in Govermnent quarters out it has oeen nunoured at Westmiuster for several days, hence Mr. Churchill's outburst." Whether this is so or not, it ssems the biggest of all controversies on the Government's nationansation pians, will centre round the iron and steel industry. The Government will cercainiy bo pressed to publish the report of the li'uii and Steel Federation. While the Daiiy Herald declares tlie liationaiisation of industry is ' ' good business'' and says the Government is carrying out its election promises, other nntional newspapers are far from content with this explanation. Tho Times points out that the industry is prornisad "liationaiisation to an indefinite degree at an indefinite time. The present prospect of a transitory regime is destined to be followed by drascic changes which must have, to say the least of it, a mu iously unsettling cffect. The final ch.aige of ownership, when its comes, is likc-iy to happen at a time when this ■ coiuitry is facing the full press/re of ioif-igxi competition, when processes of doiucstic reconstruction will be far froni complete, and when the nced for m aipower in works of construction will still be as pressing as today. Ilere surely, is a plan which, by its very nature, is bouud to make the worst of buth worlcls. " The Manchester Guardian says this is the most audacious decision the Government has yet taken in its demestic policy. While a step vithin its mand:dc, the practical difliculties of taking ovf-i such a complex industry are so app dling that this paiticular point in the party's programme, has always been rf;.!ided, even witliin the Labour moveiiiciit, as an objective to be reached by stages.