THE TABLET, January 2nd, 1954 VOL, 203, No. 5928

THE TABLET

Published as a Newspaper

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER & REVIEW

Pro Ecclesia Dei, Pro Regina et Patria

FOUNDED IN 1840

JANUARY 2nd, 1954

NINEPENCE

The Queen Among th e Maoris : An Example for the Commonwealth y

HOW Catholic is France ? : The Reassuring Picture Emerging from a Recent Enquiry

Unesco and the Teaching o f Philosophy : By Dom mtyd Trethowan

O ff to Australia : A Citizen o f the World. By Bruce Renton

Six Writers on Trial: Miss Nott Packs her Jury. By T. S. Gregory

The T echnological M ind: The Christmas Eve Allocution o f Pope Pius XII

Books R eview ed : Hatred, Ridicule or Contempt, by Joseph Dean ; The Mirror and the Lamp,

by M. H. Abrams ; Ancient Melodies, by Su Hua ; Christopher's Talks to Catholic Teachers, by David L. Greenstock ; Social Medicine, by S. Leff ; Michelangelo, by Ludwig Goldscheider ; The Rock o f Truth, by Daphne Pochin Mould ; The English Farmhouse, by Martin S. Briggs ; The Emperor Franz Joseph, by Ottokar Janetschek ; and Report from the Rhodesias, by H. Maclear Bate. Reviewed by Richard O’Sullivan, Q.C., A. O. J. Cockshutt, Ann Bridge, F. H. Drinkwater, Letitia Fairfield,

Anthony Bertram, John M. Todd, Lance Wright and Walter C. Breitenfeld.

KEEPING UP EXPORTS

A S the New Year opens, OEEC issues one o f its Surveys, a reasonably cheerful document on European Recovery, one more indication o f the success o f the policy for which the Americans have earned a lasting gratitude abroad, of dollar aid to nurse back to convalescence the sore-stricken continent, which was much more nearly finished by 1945 than was realized a t the time. The Survey is full o f pregnant information and warnings for this country. I t notes that the German production, expanding all the time, will continue to increase rapidly by comparison with other countries ; although it is expected that the increase in exports will not grow quite so fast. It will be a 5 or 6, instead o f a 7 per cent increase in 1954. It was 13 per cent in 1952. The Germans are urged to take in more imports—textiles, chemicals, motorcars and foodstuffs—instead of building a big money surplus with their European neighbours. But perhaps the most im portant point about Germany is th a t OEEC finds that investment there is sufficient, for this is, as it is everywhere, the main secret o f increased production and greater wealth. Twenty per cent of the gross national product was pu t back into capital investment in 1952.

About Italy, on the other hand, the Survey says that there is not and cannot be adequate investment simply from Italian resources, and, as the other countries in OEEC have not honoured the undertaking in the original Convention of European Co-operation to make the movement o f persons from one country to another easier, it is suggested that they should come forward to help Italy in another way. Over three hundred thousand Italians come into the labour market every year. I f half are enabled to emigrate, the other half could be absorbed into the Italian economy. But if they are so absorbed it is likely to be by the displacement o f older workers, and the unemployment problem remains, throwing its dark shadow over the peninsula.

When it looks a t Great Britain, the Survey notes a striking improvement in the last two years. We have done much, but we have not done as much as is necessary. Our exports are where they were three years ago, or slightly behind, while continental exports have increased by over a third. Our industrial production is up by 5 per cent, where the German has increased over three years by nearly 40 per cent.

These figures can be deceptive : the more destroyed a country was, the greater the percentage of recovery which it shows in the first years. But the figures o f sales o f exports are not deceptive, and the warning is given that the United Kingdom will run into balance of payment deficits and difficulties unless it can increase its exports. Now th a t can only be done if goods are made for foreign markets in preference to the home market. Other things being equal, manufacturers and traders today prefer the home market. They can watch the tastes and buying capacity o f the consumers ; they can invoke the Government, if need be, to handicap foreign competition ; they are free from the risk o f exchange difficulties and blocked transfers o f money and the sudden unfriendly discriminations o f foreign Governments. I f the buying power is created in the home market, manufacturers will want to supply it a t the cost o f exports. For a people so dependent on imported food and raw materials, this could prove very dangerous, especially if the extra purchasing power created in the home market sends prices up, since all the people with more money to spend will want to spend it on the same things, largely on imported food.

I t is against this background that the wage demands, in the name of millions of the more highly paid trade unionists, now come up in the New Year. On the credit side, it can be noted that some of the raw materials we must import have grown cheaper. But it is by under 10 per cent, and some o f the most widely used, like paper and cocoa, have in the last