Skip to main content
The largest online newspaper archiveArchive Home
The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 4
A Publisher Extra® Newspaper

The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 4

Publication:
The Guardiani
Location:
London, Greater London, England
Issue Date:
Page:
4
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

4 THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1946 OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENCE affluence" and came to an unhappy end largely through her own fault THE TRANSPORT BILL Defects of the Government's Scheme By PRIVATE WIRE Oxford Street's Defenders Authorities concerned about the state of Oxford Street have yet to Correspondent MAKE UP -we talk ot make up we don't refer to cosmetics, although we do mean something which improves the appearance. The make up of textiles is a very important part of our operations. It means plaiting, creasing, or rolling to customers' special requirements. It includes lapping, parcelling, labelling, and perhaps tying neatly with ribbon so that the finished package presents a most attractive appearance to the ultimate purchaser. All part of the service! put of cotton goods is now a national necessity.

The aim must be to create a modern industry capable of producing with about 250,000 workers enough goods to satisfy home demands and to contribute to the country's earnings of foreign exchange. If this is achieved the money will have been well spent. The next step must be made by the spinning employers and workers. In considering the Government's scheme they should recognise that it places great trust in them. It will not work unless almost all not a mere majority are prepared to play their full part.

The policy is the result of careful inquiries and long discussions. If the Government and all sections, of the industry can cooperate fn carrying it out, the sooner it is started the better. LONDON, Tuesday Night Mr. Dalton's Emotion Mr. Dalton abandoning all chaff is a rare spectacle.

Yet so it was to-day in the House of Commons. His voice had sunk to little more than a grave whisper. There were almost tears in it. This unsuspected wistful tone in the hardened Chancellor of the Exchequer was transporting the the House in imagination to the Victory on, the eve of Trafalgar and to its cockpit in the. hour pf triumph.

lhe magic that Mr. Dalton was tremulously attempting was 'surprisingly well but it was intended to serve a very mundane purnose. In other words, it was designed to secure a second reading for the bill tnat extinguishes the Nelson pension. Dalton wanted to explore for this purpose the last wishes of Lord Nelson in order to prove that he sought no pension for his heirs and successors but was only concerned to secure the future of the woman he loved" (Mr. Dalton's description), "his guardian angel" (Nelson's), and that of his daughter Horatia.

Start and Finish From this historical and emotional start to the debate there was no return. Member after member plunged in after Mr. Dalton to laud Nelson, or to put Trafalgar in its place among the decisive battles, or to broach discreetly the character of Emma, or (in Mr. Michael Foot's case) to denounce posterity's scurvy treatment of the West Country admirals Grenville, Drake, Raleigh. Hawkins, and Blake.

The crowning irrelevance, and the most amusing, was Mr. Foot speaking for the "real descendants" of the Elizabethan and Stuart admirals in Devonport and "asking what had happened to their post-war credits. That was pushing ingenuity to its utmost length. It was a debate in a hundred. And Mr.

Dalton had not been nearly lachrymose for nothing. He got his second reading with a handsome majority. Indeed, the Conservatives who were opposing the bill put up a sorry show against it. Tiring Journey The Indian visitors were rather tired when they arrived here this morning. They had spent the night in their aircraft, which left Malta at 1 30 a.m.

Yesterday, after breakfasting in an officers' mess as guests of the Governor, they looked round the island and were back at the airfield by 9 30 p.m. Most of them spent the morning in bed at their hotels, Claridges and the Dorchester. One of Mr. Jinnah's staff, apologising for being unshaven at lunch-time, seemed unimpressed by the demonstrations of the morning at London airport. They were young people shouting about Pakistan," he said.

The India Office has been giving instruction to-day in the correct use of titles. It is wrong to speak of Lord Wavell as Viceroy when he is in the same country as the King. His official title here is Governor General. Two Tiers Alderman Charles Key, who is Mr. Bevan's deputy at the Ministry of Health, enlivened the week-end with a speech at Stoke in which he brought forth the Labour party's old plan for reorganising local government on a two-tier system regional and district.

Alderman Key's position as a junior Minister in the department which is so closely concerned with local government has led to the question whether he was announcing a change of Government plan, for the uovernment is reorganising local government piecemeal and has not yet adopted the two-tier system as a general policy. lae Ministrv does not recognise the speech as an ex-cathedra utterance, but in order to remove any doubt on the subject Mr. Fred Peart, the member for Workington, is to ask Mr. Be van on Thursday "when he proposes to publish his proposals for the reform of local government." Letters to (she had an unbridled taste for gambling). Mr.

Gallacher also did not like the Chancellor's line, but most Communists are distinguished by at least a vein of asceticism. It was an odd measure to be introduced by a Government that cannot allow private members their time, but, without dimming the lustre of the immortal name, it expunged an anachronism. Cuts in Current The onset of wintry weather in the North-west brings threats of a breakdown' in supplies of electricity to industry unless ordinary consumers make, an effort to ease the at times of peak-load. The danger is one that intimately concerns us all, for every hope of relief from austerity depends on the maintenance and expansion of- our industrial output Fortunately, the appeal is one that can be answered without serious hardship, for the critical 'shortage is in plant capacity rather than in fuel The trouble is that the conversion of workshops to electric power has outstripped the installation of new generating equipment. What we are asked to do, therefore, is not necessarily to use less electricity but rather to be considerate about the times at which we use it.

Those of us, for example, who must cook by electricity (and cannot conveniently do so outside the peak-hours) will be making some contribution if they see that their immersion heaters are switched on only in off-peak periods. Those who have alternative sources of heat can arrange to fit their calls on electric current in between the inflexible demands of other consumers. All of us, by exercising forethought and a little ingenuity. can help to spread the load more evenly at levels with which existing plant can cope, and in doing so we need not suffer any real loss of comfort. The Fate of Ennerdale The Minister of Health, who is the real Minister of country planning for all areas from which water may be drawn, has consented to the raising of the Ennerdale dam and the lowering of its draw-off pipes.

In doing so he stipulates that, since Ennerdale is an essential and particularly lovely feature of the proposed national park, the engineering and other works shall be carried out "with special care." We might have been, spared this hypocrisy. The conditions he has imposed are welcome for what they are worth, but the appearance of the dam itself is of relatively small importance it is the rise and fall of the water level, first submerging the natural conformation of the shore line and then baring acres of mud or a streak of blanched scree, that turns a beautiful lake into an ugly reservoir. The present draw-off from Ennerdale normally adds only a few imperceptible inches to the natural range of fluctuation. In future, however, Whitehaven will have power to take a daily supply more than ten times greater than the maximum capacity of its existing mains, and in dry summers the lake level will drop eleven feet. But the resulting eyesore will not, in the Minister's view, amount to serious damage nor does he consider it reasonable to incur instead the extra cost negligible in relation to the scale of industrial development involved of tapping an alternative source or correcting the unexampled wastefulness of Whitehaven's present supply system.

And so ends another stage in the piecemeal erosion of our Lakeland heritage. A COUNTRY DIARY Oxfordshire. December 1. On the north side of Oxford the Thames is flanked by a broad, flat area of common land which is one of the first parts of the district to flood, and which continuous heavy rain, such as we have had recently. quickly transforms into a large lake.

Yesterday we found the greater part of it flooded to a sufficient depth to allow the yachts, that one usually sees sailing to and fro between Medley weir and Godstow nunnery, to range at will over its wide expanse It was not, however, the yachts that we had come to watch, attractive though they were, with their sails looking whiter than ever against a dark, threatening cloud, but the birds that habitually gather there in time of flood. At first our search was ill-rewarded, for the wind-swept wafers held nothing bu small parties of mute swans which sailed majestically up and down between the yachts. Suddenly, however, we heard the report of a shot-gun. and saw birds rise in small clouds from the far edge of the lake and come flying swiftly down wind towards us. The majority were lapwings, but there were also two or three flocks of golden plover, which at this time of the year feed beside the Thames and roost on some arable or high ground to the west of Oxford, half a dozen teal.and two parties of gulls, which looked like blsckheaded gulls and herring gulls, though the fading light made it impossible to be certain.

And as they swept swiftly past us we caught sight of a string of pied wagtails flying unsteadily up-wind towards their roost in some reeds beside a canal, half a mile or so beyond the limit the "lake." J. K. A. "IMPERISHABLE WORDS" Mr. Justice Birkett, who was the principal speaker at the forty-ninth, dinner of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries in London Guildhall last night, said ol Mr.

Churchill So long as the Knglish speech endures, so long will his imperishable words ring down the ages." Speaking of the ir-stitute, he said lie was glad that among the 13,000 members were 250 women. Just as I welcome women to the Bar, so I rejoice in this element in the affairs of the institute." From a Special Whatever one may think of the policy in the Transport Bill, it is a remarkable legal document. It compresses into 127 clauses and thirteen schedules the transfer into one organisation of a vast industry composed of thousands of separate parts, costing at to-day's prices some 6,000,000.000 and employing 1,500,000 people. Unless one has the training to read a measure of this nature, it is in many respects unintelligible, because of the. complicated legal wording and the numerous cross-references.

A first reading may also cause one to recoil from the magnitude of the scheme, forgetting that mere size can be a bogy. The first thing to bear in mind is that the complete co-ordination of transport cannot be achieved without the unification and integration of its different sections. The Royal Commission on Transport in 1931 stated It appears to us that without unification however it may be accomplished no attempt to bring about complete co-ordination would be successful." There is now a large body of well-informed professional transport opinion which supports this view. This is not in any way a political issue it is a conclusion based on facts. If there is to be unification and integration of transport that is, the formation of one body to control all public services should this vast monopoly be owned by the State or by private interests lhat is the political issue, and the main one which arises on this bill.

The policy of the Government is that the unified undertaking should be owned by the State. If this principle is accepted as sound and it is difficult to argue against it the next point is whether the scheme embodied in the bill is the best that can be devised to obtain the most efficient transport system at the lowest economic cost to the nation, including as a primary requirement the securing of public goodwill. There are features of this bill which are so much open to technical criticism, and others which are likely to arouse so much resent ment, that it would almost seem that the Government is either deliberately trailing its coat or has been unable to withstand trade union pressure in iraming its FINANCE All taxpayers naturally expect the Government to resist extor tionate purchase terms, but they also expect them to be fair and reasonable. The present owners of the railways, canals, and London Passenger Transport Board which represent the largest undertakings to be transferred have provided the capital and receive in return a certain income, the bulk of which is governed by statutory maxima, for example, the average net income of the railways since amalgamation is 37,000,000. Under the bill they will in future receive not more than 23,000,000.

Obviously some allowance must be made for the Government security, but surely not to tne extent ot this difference. If there were provision for -indepen dent arbitration it would provide "some satisfaction, but even this, for the hrst tune, is denied. The resent ment cannot but be deep, and as there are a million owners of the railways alone it is bound to affect goodwill. There is no evidence of any discussions or negotiations; the terms are simply dictated by the buyer that is, the representatives of tne ttate. The second main point to noticp is that the new Transport Commission win very largely be controlled bv the Minister of Transport and his civil servants.

The independence which transport administration must have if it is to succeed is not evident. The Minister can control it in matters affecting the national interest (what SARAWAK To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian Sir, Mr. Anthony Brooke's letter of November 14 offered an explanation of what I intended to convey in my letter of November 7 regarding the results of the inquiry which Captain Gammans and I carried out in Sarawak. May I point out that we did reach, and report, a specific conclusion namely, that there was sufficient acquiescent or favourable opinion in the country to justify the question of cession going before the two constitutional councils 'I The Dyak Association originally opposed cession, then ceased its opposition, but has now, I understand, reverted to its original attitude. The association, however, is definitely not' representative of the Dyak community at large.

It may claim to have roots in other parts of Sarawak through, relatives, but there is no branch of the association elsewhere than in the First As regards the Malay National Union, I understand that new branches were recently opened at Sibu and Miri but that, although the union may also claim to have roots in other parts of the territory, there are no other branches. I think it is fair to say that real opposition is still confined to. a few educated Malays in Kuching. Neither ot these two associations can claim to represent the communities, but only restricted sectional interests. A letter from the Rev.

H. H. Howes, published on November 14, also questions my statement that Captain Gammans and I had discussions with representatives of all classes and communities. He refers to what happened in his parish, 15 miles from Kuching. Captain Gammans and I had a public meeting in Kuching with representatives of all classes and communities and arranged to hold a further one with out-station representatives.

Although invitations were sent out for this -second meeting there was not sufficient response to enable the meeting to be held. Mr. Howes's doubts whether "many of those who were anti-cession would, after their experience of the Japanese, "have had the courage to board the warship of another occupying Power and say what they really thought are without any justification. The vessel which Captain Gammans and I were using as our headquarters was Pickle (a flotilla leader minesweeper), not Alacrity, and 'there was no lack of visitors. Captain Gammans and I found there was no hesitation anywhere in speaking in the frankest terms.

I should like once again to express the hope that, the issue of cession having been decided constitutionally, the people of the territory will be left to devote themselves to the rehabilitation and development of Sarawak and will not be diverted by any farther find a method of dealing with traders whose only offence is an alleged lowering of the tone of the famous shopping centre. The councils of Westminster and St Marylebone have asked the Municipal Boroughs Standing Joint Committee for advice, since the problem is not considered to be a purely local one. It is known, for example, that some of the municipal representatives in your city are concerned about one or two famous streets. The London County Council, as the town-planning authority, is involved in the Oxford Street discussions, but has not yet decided whether anything needs to or could be done. The St.

Marylebone Chamber of Commerce is holding a meeting on the subject next week. Oxford Street does not appear to have a tenants' and traders' associa tion as Regent Street and Bond Street have. Regent Street tenants have to satisfy the Commissioners for Crown 'Lands that their trading and publicity methods are The Bond Street Association keeps an eye on advertising, seeks the co-operation of estate agents, and wistfully remembers how useful was the war-time Control of Retail Premises Order. Show-Piece On a brand-new platform beneath Liverpool Street this afternoon a group of people watched the Minister of Transport turn a gold key in a signal, changing the light from red to green and causing an elaborately pleated blue curtain to tall aside from the mouth of the tunnel. Thus was opened the Central Line's extension to Bethnal Green, Mile End, and Stratford.

A brand-new train (or one most cunningly renovated) took the guests on a trial trip, and one of them, Mr. Phil Piratin, said how pleased his constituents would be. The train stopped at Bethnal Green so that everyone might admire "the prototype underground station of the future and ride on its escalators. Very pleasing it is, too, with its cream and red tiles, its efficient ventilation, and its greatly improved daylight lighting But attention was diverted from these attractions by an open cigarette kiosk. This was not only handsomely designed it was also well stocked, and most of the 150 distinguished guests descended upon it to buy.

Homes for Airmen "RAF. Housing," an exhibit of the future married quarters for the Air Force, is a lively example of service devotion to detail. When Mr. Noel-Baker opened the series of specimen rooms in Piccadilly to-day he talked of the Air Council's intention to provide amenities as good as those in civil life. Here are a well-planned kitchen, the best thing in the show, and bedroom, living and dining rooms, suites of good utility quality.

More than that. wives are to be issued with a vacuum cleaner (when they can be supplied) ana provided, with an electric iron, a clothes line, and even clothes pegs. iot even a or a glass bowl for fruit has been forgotten. uver two-thirds ot the pre-war married quarters of the R.AF. have now been restored and some hundreds of new quarters are being planned or built on adozen stations.

Parliamentary Language All the efforts of Sir Alan Herbert to cleanse the Parliamentary tongue seem to have little effect. There were two serious lapses to-day. The Lord President of the Council, who appeared to be reading from a brief, uttered the word elicitate." and the Minister of Pensions revealed that there is a category of human beings known officially as infirm total orphans." the Editor expect they are still there waiting for the first severe frost to destroy them. H. Ch.

has appealed to the denazification board, but the decision may take months, and by then farm and house will be gone, cattle dispersed, and much food have perished in the field. Yours, A. Z. London, November 30. To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian Sir, Your readers may be interested in these passages of a letter from a former German prisoner of war in this country.

As welfare visiter to his camp I came to know him well. He was repatriated in October. The longer I am in my owi country, the more I come to understand the suspicious attitude of my peo.ple towards the British. This is how they argue At Potsdam you expelled our fellow-countrymen from Eastern Germany. We ask you now to help us to feed them.

Democracy may be a good thing, but as long as our stomachs are empty, our coal exported, and production hampered in every way it will seem to us a mockery. If you want us to live penned up like savages and to die slowly but surely, let of us know but do not then talk Christianity and humanity. There is some falsehood in this argument, but people find it hard to have faith in these days. They want deeds, not words. When I talk of my kind treatment in Britain by the Quakers, by the Churches, and people generally, some few will change their ideas about Britain a little.

But on the whole hostility goes on growing. Lord Beveridge was only too right in saving that denazification as it is done now means renazification. There is a terrible lack of information and enlightenment. As you know, with our German people feeling was always stronger than thinking, and feeling does not at present denounce Nazism, which gave us full stomachs. Little is provided to set our peoDle thinking on the right lines.

The P.O.W. cam os in Britain are better off more good papers, more lectures and material for understanding the history and policy of Britain. In tellingr you of my impressions I do not complain. I feel deeply my people's guilt. I do not even deplore my two years as a prisoner in Britain, for it gave me an opportunity to understand the British nation and the British way of life.

I cannot hate the British. 1 only wish fellow-countrymen could learn the same lesson, but who is to teach them By the way. there are many to whom I have snaken Nora Wsln's "Reaching for the Stars," that enlightening' account of her stay in Hitler's Germany. They are eaer to read it Can you send me a copy Yours, C. E.

Layman. 27. Church Road, Kingston-on-Thames, December 1. ever that may mean in practice), can stop any of the Commission's activities if he thinks fit, can give directions a Specific character to the Commission if he wishes to do so on recommendations made to him by the Cental Transport Consultative Commute" which is to be set up, can make tV Commission prepare and submit him a road passenger transport coordination scheme for any area ot country, can instruct the Commissi. regarding the establishment of general reserve fund and the use which it is put, and so on.

No don it will be said, as on the Coal that there is no intention on tnn Minister's part to interfere, but this far frorn what the bill says. As to the organisation of the nc undertaking when it is formed, Government has obviously tak some note of the view expressed -i these columns earlier that the np- way is to fuse the parts. Although bill adheres to the idea of the tuo unions that the organisations unJ- Transport Commission shoul each represent a different fo: transport, this is prefaced bv tlv. words unless and until other ui sion is made." The whole emphas the bill is that these sub-organisation-. or executives, as they are called, v.

ill be the "key" transport bodies. Jrd it will be a great pity if the Gi -ment insists on making one fot lucr separate form of transport. It w-likely, once they are launched, that other provision can be made, and may cause endless trouble later on. This is to be a transport organisation, and everything depends on it bein- sj regarded from the start by the stafT. and particularly by new entrants to its service.

To preserve the seoavato forms of transport will hamper thi and, more important, will not assist in securing co-ordination of transpoi which js the object of the bill. PRIVATE TRANSPORT There is space only to discuss briefly the position of private transport under the bill. The private car is left as now, but the goods licence opei a-tor cannot run beyond forty miles from his base unless he can obtam a permit. The factors to which special regard are to be had by the licensing authority are the effect on the applicant's business of the decision, the extent to which the vehicles are required to maintain continuous production, and the additional costs hkelv to be incurred in handling, packing, or risk of damage if the private vehicles cannot be run. Regard must also be paid to representations made by the Transport Commission.

The object of the bill is clearly to put a check on private goods vehicle operation, and to this extent the incentive which the private operator is capable of providing to keep public transport efficient will be lost. In view of the lack of independence of the Transport Commission, there is probably no alternative but to restrict private goods transport. If, as seems likely, policy is to be imposed on the Commission by the controlling Government department, it cannot at the same time be exposed to vigorous competition from private transport. The wonder is that the private car is left unrestricted in these circumstances. Against these criticisms of the bill, mention should be made here of at least one feature which is very good, that dealing with conditions of employment.

It has obviously been drafted in conjunction with the trade unions, and it is in work of this kind that the unions excel. MASTER GUNNER The King has approved the appointment of Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke as Master Gunner, St. James's Park, with effect from November 5, in succession to Field Marshal Lord Milne, who resigned the appointment on that date. HOSPITAL DISPUTE To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian Sir, The threatened dismissal of matrons and nurses is the last No one in his senses has anything but admiration for the services of nurses everywhere no one has suggested that these particular nurses are any less selfless in their devotion to their job than the nurses who are trade union members. Why then are they threatened with loss of livelihood, when the whole country is short of hospital staff How-icing are we to suffer strikes and dismissals at the hands of tradu unionists to whom the ideas of liberalism and tolerance are a closed book? The Government, in whom is vested the real power to outlaw discrimination against opponents of trade unions, curiously remiss in using that power.

Non-trade unionists are. almost by definition, not organised to prevent the discrimination spreading. I supported the Labour party at the generaL election I am a member a trade union but unless this tyranny is ended by direct Government action (and that quickly) there will be no more bitter opponent of the Labci-i: party at the next election than myself. Yours, 4c, Howard Lees. 1, Everlasting Lane, St.

Alban's November 30. "WORTHY OF DEATH" To the Editor of the Manchester Guard ui Sir, May I comment on your corr-mentary concerning the term "todeswiirdig in to-day's issue The expression todeswiirdig is by no means a "Nazi" invention. The "Duden dictionary contains this word in iU edition of 1930, and I. a German, am quite familiar with this term. In- Luther's translation of the Bible you find in Luke 23, IS, the phrase ties Todes.wext" as a literary translation from the Vulgate et eoce nihil mgnum morte actum est ei." I sup; pose that the term todeswiirdig originates here.

The translation ci. "wurdig" by means ot "worthy" is misleading: the meaning it conveys in this context is not "worthy" but 14 deservedly. Todeswiirdig th connotes deserving of death." ana not worthy of death." Yours. J. W.

Cohn. St College, S.J.. Leeds 3, November 28. efforts by people outside the territory to encourage or stimulate anti-cession activity. Yours, D.

R. Rees-Wuxiams. House of Commons. November 21. SPECIFY CHADWYN it for attractive Finish and Make Up.

J. CHADWICK A Dyers and Finlihers, 70. SPRING GARDENS. MANCHESTER 2, ('Phone CEN. 6965.) London Office 50, Empire Houie.

SC. MirttB'-le-Gnnd. C. 1. THE GUARDIAN MANCHESTER, WEDNESDAY, December 4, 1946 AID FOR COTTON The Government is offering substantial help to the cotton industry.

It will pay one-quarter of the cost of new machinery for the spinning section of the industry. This will apply to machinery ordered in the next two years, all of which it is hoped to get delivered within five years. The Working Party estimated that such a re-equipment programme might cost 38,000,000, so the Government is in effect offering something like 10,000,000. This is generous, and the spinners should not have many doubts about their response. Sir Stafford Cripps is hoping for a reply to the offer by the end of the year.

The Government is not attaching to the grant any conditions of a kind which would cramp the effort and initiative of individual firms. What is asked is, essentially, that the industry should accept the broad aims laid down by the Working Party. It has to work in future with a much smaller labour force than it had before the war and pay it higher wages. It can therefore produce enough cotton goods at competitive prices only if it works with modern labour-saving machines. These will have to run double-shift and fewer mills will be needed.

There must be re-equipment and consolidation." The industry's experience this year has left little room for doubt that this is the only possible policy. What Sir Stafford asks is therefore what the industry, both 'in its own and in the national interest, must do if it is to survive. This policy requires changes in habits on both sides of the industry. It is not enough that new machinery should be installed. It must be worked efficiently which means that it must Tun for two shifts a day and be staffed with as little labour as can ao tne worK wnnout strain.

Wasteful methods of using labour were built up as a defence when the operatives were liable to unemploy ment, short time, and cuts in wage rates. To abandon these practices now requires a great mental readjustment. But it must be made if the industry is to prosper in the new world of full employment. High wages and good conditions of work depend upon it. From the employers the modernisation policy demands the surrender of a small part of their traditional individualism.

In order to close down some mills and re-equip the most suitable as quickly as possible they must work together in groups larger than most of the existing firms. The industry must be prganised in what Sir Stafford called manoeuvrable units. There is no reason why this should interfere with most of the decisions of individual managements. "All that is needed is a co-operative policy for re-equipment and consolidation. The range and quality of output, methods of work, and so on could remain matters for each mill's own initiative.

The form of the groupings could also be elastic. Sir Stafford suggested 500,000 spindles equivalent to about six average mills as a minimum size. Presum ably vertical firms, with somewhat fewer spindles but having looms as well, would also be satisfactory. Provided the form of grouping is flexible, there can be no objection to the Government's policy of making grants only to groups and not to small firms which choose to remain outside. As an inducement to adjust its methods of working to the shortage of labour the spinning industry is being offered something like 10,000,000 from the taxpayer.

If the scheme is accepted and begins to work well, similar help will presumably be offered to the weaving section. Sir Stafford emphasised that cotton is a special case. The Government cannot make grants to other industries. This will arouse some resentment, but the circumstances of cotton are exceptional. During its long depression it benefited less from Government measures than almost any other industry.

During the war, when some other industries extended their plant with Government help, many mills ir ware closed and all lost many of fheir workers. A quick increase in the out The German Agreement It is hardly to be avoided (our foreign exchange position being what it is) that the agreement concluded between Mr. Bevin and Mr. Byrnes on the economic future of the British and American zones of Germany will be scrutinised first in this country to see what demands it makes on our stock of dollars. Germans, on the other hand, will read it to see whether it offers them the two things food and hope which they need above everything.

The opposition between their point of view and ours is more apparent than real, for it is evident that without food and hope the population of the British zone will cost us more and more. If this was not clear enough a year ago it has become terribly clear these last few months as the bill for starvation and paralysis has mounted up. Practical business considerations now compel us, if other considerations do not suffice, to plan the putting of money into Germany in order that Germany may begin to help herself. That the plans outlined in the New York agreement leave out the French and Soviet zones so that they take on the character of first aid instead of cure is no fault of the British or the Americans. The cost to the British Treasury, estimated by Mr.

Dalton at 125,000,000 over the next three years, is no trifle. Yet it is small in relation to the problem to be solved, the number of people whose livelihood is at stake, and the benefits to Europe if Western Germany could be converted into a fully working and peaceful partner in European economy. Unless Mr. Dalton's estimate is to be exceeded, we shall need ai more lucid and resourceful handling of German affairs than we have had so far. Most of the concrete points in the agreement merely remove some of the more ludicrous obstacles which have so far made nonsense in advance of any attempt to handle Germany rationally.

The setting up of a joint committee in Washington to see to procurement may end the "poor relation" status of the British zone which was an immediate cause of the present famine. The intention is expressed of allowing technical and business communication between Germany and the outside world. Most important, provision is made at last for Germany to import the raw materials without which her indus tries must remain at a standstill These are improvements but the positive steps forward are still to be taken. It is good sense to agree that the aim of the two Governments is the achievement by the end of 1949 of a self-sustaining economy for the area," but does this mean that the level of industry plan is dropped? It should, but does it? Financial reform and the establishment of an exchange value for the mark are splendid ideas, but how will they be translated into reality? Can the Russians be got to agree on any plan for the future of the mark? If not, can a rotten nnanciai structure oe rebuilt in two zones while ignoring the other two? The agreement does not end our troubles in Germany but it should mean that we can begin to tackle them seriously. The Nelson Pension Attempting to establish anything in perpetuity in this world is a doubtful undertaking which may embarrass those who come after.

So the House of Commons found it yesterday, and not for the first time on this same question, when it set a term to the annual pension 'of 5,000 paid to Nelson's descendants in the indirect line. As Mr. Boyd-Carpenter argued, members of Parliament in 1806 may have had strange notions of what was a worthy memorial, but the form they chose was this pension. If they had endpwed a school in perpetuity it might have been allowed to stay presumably someone will pay for the upkeep of the Nelson Column as long as it stands, but they decided upon a means which was popular in. their day but unpopular in ours.

It must shake the most hardened traditionalist to realise that 700,000 has been paid by the State one family, in whose welfare Nelson himself did not show particular concern. Yesterday's debate was in many ways amusing. It is not only on the films that Lady Hamilton steals the picture. Mr. Dalton made pretty play with her sad story, and one felt that if the pension had gone to he would have objected less.

This sentimentality was properly rebuked by Mr. Wilson Harris, who reminded, the Chancellor that she had been left in "comparative DENAZIFICATION To the Editor of the Manchester Guardian Sir, I have been informed of a grave injustice committed by a denazification beard in the British zone of Germany. A year ago H. Ch. undertook to convert part of a military training camp (250 acres) in Holstein into farmland, the Administration giving him the tenancy of the land.

He set to work with such energy that even after the first year the farm yielded a fine crop. The authorities, however, decided to divide the farm in due course into small settlements in order to accommodate deportees from the East. In recognition of his pioneer work and of his outstanding achievements H. Ch. was to be granted one of the 30 settlements, but to be admitted as a settler he had to pass a denazification tribunal.

Then on October 16 he received a letter issued by order of the Military Government from which 1 quote the following relevant passages Re Dismissal as Settler. You are instantly dismissed from your tenancy. Your application for a settlement is refused. Upon receipt of this letter you must at once leave your farm and the house which you and your family hive been occupying. Reasons Member of the S.A.

1933. Professional soldier (dismissed as colonel). Militarist. I wish to state that H. Ch.

was never a member of the SA. or any other Nazi organisation. According to the regulations published in every detail he is not to be classified as militarist. I a Jewish refugee have known him for twenty years, and all through the Nazi years he stood by his Jewish friends and tried to help them, risking his position and safety by showing openly his contempt for Nazi principles. On receiving this devastating blow H.

Ch. tried to get in touch with the officer in charge of the Military Government This officer refused to see either H. lawyer or anybody else, and did not even answer his letters, but had him turned out of his house the house he himself had built by the police. A trustee took over and had an inventory taken. Through the taking of the inventory and the 'eviction from the house, harvesting was held up for eight days.

As the house was taken' away the large kitchen was lost too. The working parties from the neighbouring villages and from LObeck which used to come to work during the day had been given meals, and when meals were no longer provided the entire arrangement had to stop. In consequence, many thousands of hundredweights of vegetables had to remain in the fields. I.

Get access to Newspapers.com

  • The largest online newspaper archive
  • 300+ newspapers from the 1700's - 2000's
  • Millions of additional pages added every month

Publisher Extra® Newspapers

  • Exclusive licensed content from premium publishers like the The Guardian
  • Archives through last month
  • Continually updated

About The Guardian Archive

Pages Available:
1,153,931
Years Available:
1821-2024