M. Moch Speaks Out
Mr. Glenvil Hall did not indicate what his precise target was when, in his speech at the European Assembly on Tuesday he charged other Atlantic Treaty nation, with shirking the sacri- fices Great Britain was making in the interests of rearmament, but it is noteworthy that on the same day M. Moch, the French Socialist leader, was warning his party (in a passage which might be commended to the special attention of Mr. Bevan) that you cannot have rearmament, reconstruction and an increase in the cost of the social services at one and the same time. It is not much less noteworthy that M. Moch lost his seat on the party executive in consequence, a penalty which, since his whole theme was the need for putting nation before party, is not likely to depress him unduly. Of equal or greater interest, and not much more congenial to his audience, was the Defence Minister's demonstration of the problems raised by the increase in the expectation of life, and not of mere survival but of the span of sound health and activity, a fact which, he contended, must lead to a revision of the whole system of pensions ; almost half employees on French railways are pensioners and the arm> is actually expending more on pensions than on army pay. The principle involved here concerns this country no less than France. Old age pensions were introduced for the benefit of persons assumed to be past work at a certain age, whether 70 or 65. But the Government has spent and is spending Nast sums in so improving the health of -individuals that they can work, and earn, some years longer than was the case a genera- tion ago. Is it, none the less, to go on spending as much as ever, or even more, on pensions ? The question needs to be objectively explored, on an actuarial basis.
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