Crisis Looms In British Cabinet

Chronicle (Levin), 17 October 1949, Page 5

Crisis Looms In British Cabinet

Received Sunday, 7 p.m. a n 1,. LONDON, October 15. imrnimAM +?s5 I begun over Labour's grim austerity pro-. fttw V f i m • y Dfspatch political correspondent. Mr. rlnU urnS^ andErnest Bevin are standing together to railroad tbiough Cabmet this week crisis policies which cut dead H?™ +SS' There are murmuring's of Ministerial revolt and demands that the workers must be compensated for sacrifices in VV dig Ubi It is understood that Cabinet, on Tuesday, will- consider nlans demandmg, firstly, that trade unions sha/'aband^ ' ^reStr£tive practices and worA all-out for reeovery; secondly, longer hours in some mdustnes; thirdly, an increase in the weekly national insurance payment by both employees and employers. Cuts in food, including sugar, may shock the housewife but some of these may he temporary. The Sunday hxpress political correspondent says the eeonomic committee of Cabinet will make a fina] draft tom'orrow of a plan imposmg new austerities on Britain. It will pineh every man woman and child in the country. ' . ^ 1S understood it has been agreed to release 5000 temporary eml servants by (Tristmas for productive work. Other proposals believed to be under consideration are, firstly, a.10 per eent cut in capital expenditure ; secondly, the cessation of all office and satellite town building ; thirdly, the reimposition of the excess profits tax. Ineluded in the Oovernment's programrae will be an appeal to woikei s to give up the five-day week for a year or tw), returning to 51- days. , "We have to provide incentives for the workers or we shall undo much of the good work we have done," Mr. Arthur Deakin, general secretary of- the Transport and Oeneral Worl^rs' Union^ Britain 's largest trade union, said at Oxford last night. He rejected the idea of a national minimnm wage "purely on the. basis of the utter impraetieability of doing it. " The best method of payment, he added, was payment by results. Increased effort | should mean increased earnings. ' ;