MONEY AND GOODS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 54, 1 September 1943, Page 4

MONEY AND GOODS

Sir, —That Mr. Fraser who boasted in his speech on Monday that "the purchasing power of the people had been expanded and the general standard of living had vastly unproved," that Mr, Fraser who'declared that "factory production had gone up and the total wage bill had risen from £66,000,000 in 1925 to £155,000,000 in 1943"—can it be the same Mr. Fraser who said in the House of Representatives on May 18, 1942, that "every country at war is fighting an economic battle within its own borders. Someone has called it the Battle of the Inflationary Gap"? Can it be the same Mr. Fraser who said in his annual address to the Labour Party on April 6, 1942, that "purchasing power expressed in money had continued to rise. For the year ended December, 1941, wage earnings alone had increased by £12,500,000 on the preceding 12 months, and the total was still going up. Also, the record value of exports for the 1940-41 season had the effect of increasing farmers' incomes. On the other hand, the volume of goods for civil use had declined. After deducting material dev/ted to military purposes, the value of goods available for civil consumption had decreased from £141,000,000 in 1939 to £98,000,000 in 1941. Because of price increases, the relative decrease in volume would be greater still. In the present year further curtailment would take place. Today . . .we haye money incomes derived from both civil and defence production being used to purchase commodities representing civil production alone. The dangers inherent in such a position cannot be too strongly emphasised"?

Can Mr. Fraser say how comes it that what was a danger in April, 1942 becomes a. triumph for the Labour Party in 1943? And how comes it that the purchasing power which was merely competing for diminished supplies in 1942 has been "expanded" this year?—l am, etc,

BAFFLED.