CO-ORDINATION PLANS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1940, Page 6

CO-ORDINATION PLANS

ESTABLISHMENT OF EXPORT COUNCIL

NEED TO INCREASE TRADE. ADJUSTING WAR CONDITIONS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. February 1. Mi- Neville Chamberlain, referring to the establishment of an Export Council, pointed out the essential part played in the co-ordination of departmental policies by the Economic Policy Committee.'over which the Chancellor of the Exchequer presided and with which Lord Stamp worked, and by the Central Priority Committee, on which all departments concerned were represented. He instanced how this committee proceeded in cases where supplies required by the Service De-

partments or for other needs, including those of the export trade, were in shortage. It might be I’nat the Board of Trade put forward demands necessary to maintain or increase the- export trade. Every department of the Government was now represented on the committee. including the Treasury, which had to see how Hie exchange position was affected, and the Foreign Office had to see that treaties with neutral countries were not infringed. It then had

to be decided who was to go short, and if there was a real shortage it was often possible to find a substitute material. At the end of one or two meetings it was possible to allocate amounts according to needs. The Government realised the need for increasing the export trade, and no one was more interested in that than the Chancellor of the Exchequer, because it was only by increasing exports that the country could increase its reserves of foreign exchange. To get a programme for the export trade as a whole was a complicated business. When the war .broke out. said the Premier, they had of necessity to concentrate upon very,, urgent matters such as supplies of materials and to effect a reduction of imports and establish control. Naturally these things had interfered a good deal with the export trade. But it was always recognised that after the first phase of dislocation it would be necessary to make adjustments. They had ' now arrived at the second phase. There had been investigation of the needs of the export trade and of the co-ordina-tion necessary in order to reconstruct exports. The increase in exports in December drew .attention to the fact that if allowance were made for the absence of exports to Germany they made a more favourable comparison with 1938.

In conclusion, he said that the War Cabinet, in dealing with these questions, was governed by one paramount consideration —would the proposed action help to win the war?

COMMONS DEBATE PRESS COMMENT ON NEW COUNCIL. MOVE IN RIGHT DIRECTION. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.12 a.m.) RUGBY, February 2. The Opposition motion, on which yestei'day’s House of Commons debate on economic organisation took place, was defeated by 185 votes to 90 in favour of a ministerial amendment, expressing satisfaction with the existing arrangements for economic co-ordina-tion and at the improvement of export trade.

Editorial comment on the debate fully recognises the party atmosphere in which the discussion procedeed. Speaking of the institution of an Export Council "The Times” comments that: "This concession to a demand, which certainly has not been restricted to hostile politicians or for that matter to fussy journalists, is undoubtedly a move in the right direction, for it will enable those who themselves are engaged in trade or industry to judge from the inside whether our economic machinery is in fact the best possible for war purposes. This is typical of the general editorial attitude which, while welcoming; the new council, expresses the view that the case made for reorganisation in the ministerial direction of economic policy has not been altogether convincingly met by the Government.