WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER TO HAVE WORKED HARDER

Chronicle (Levin), 27 September 1949, Page 5

WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER TO HAVE WORKED HARDER

Received Moudav, 7 p.m. T ONDON, Rept. 26. Lord Rimou, a former Chancellor of Ihe Exchequer. called the devaluation of the pound an expedieut for trving to avoid thp conpequenceF of a policy of overspending arid extravagaiice sinee the war. . . ■ Addressiug Gt. Audrew s TTniOTiiRt nrid Liberal Associatiou. he said thnt to write dowu the pound so _ that an American could buv a BTitish car priced at £300 bv producing 840 dollaTS instend of 1200 dollars, onght certainly to h«ve the resnlt of sellitig mnre British cars to Americans. But that was not the only effect of devaluation. Tt rednoed the dollars earned for the same exports. Tf we wanted mere , dollars we mnst do more work. Tt was , surnrising to hear Rir Rtafford Cripps, in his broadcast on Rnndav, speak a1? if the tise in the eost of bread and flonr was the onlv adverse result that mattered. "What abont cotton or meat or nietals or oil imported across the Atlantie?" asked Lord Simon. "When T was Chancellor of the Excheqner, the French heavily depreciated the franc and for a ti'me French exports benelited. But snch consequences are temporary. A whole series of reactions follows in manv countries and it needs an iron resolution in the spirit of our democracy to get the advantages of this step — the gravest step in the financial field sinee 1931 — without other results whieh would nullify its effect."