Britain Badly Needs Leader

Chronicle (Levin), 2 March 1948, Page 5

Britain Badly Needs Leader

R-Gceived Monday, 7.0 p.m. LONDON, Mar. l, ^Tbere are two nations (in Britain) today," says The Eoonomist, "namely- those Avho realise the plig'ht of the eoimtry and looming catastrophe which threatens British eeonomy ancj perhaps tlie British way of lii'e and those

wno still cherish the illusion of prosperity, a full wage packet and ( asy profit. - "Jn recent weeks, thanks largeiy to the frank realism of Sir Staflord (Yipps, the gnlf of undcrstahding lietween the two has narrowed. But it nnist reluctantly be confessed even now that the, majority of ])eople are still unalde or unwilliug to I'o-rni any conception oi the. ecqnoniie — and ultimately politb'.ai — peril in which the eoun-, 1 i*y s'ands. "It is disheaftening," the (journal continues, "to see Iioav quickly h ssons which the White Paper on personal ineomes preaehes, haye been Jost in linprofitqble bickering. " It admits there has been-'a great imjjrovenient in the publicity about economic affairs recentjy but adds that it is Still couched jn terms utterly l'emote from the average man. A steelworker, it sug'gesfs, is more interested in

football pools than a White Paper on the balahce of payments, and dockers don't read White Papers on personal ineomes. What is needed is something-. which is honT est yet inspired by a common touch.

That demands, firstly, most scrupulous demands for facts un- , tinctured by political hopes or prejudices. Secopdly, the average man and woman must be shown what tlie. facts moan in terms oi food ,on their plates and eJotlies on their liacks.. The Eeonomist" declares that British peopl'e are eapable eyeq now of a courageoiis effort of selfbelp thotig'h there are some obvious weak sjiots^-lagging' coal " production, and undermanned cotton industry. Despite improvements in^ "production ; by various industries, "it is true to say of British industry today' that it is working nt'too low "a pressure for too feAv bours. Aveekly. " i . "Who," it asks, ♦'will have the oourage to lead a movement for a longer AAqorking week? Some spokesman for the GoArernment must evoke a ucav expansidn spirit in production and effort. The alternative is growing frustration soon folloAved by eollapse."