Production or Disaster
The level of production is a serious matter. It is the index whereby the ability of this country to maintain the status of a first- :lass economic power will be measured. The decisive period is e the next five years. After that it will be possible to build on a good foundation well and truly laid, but it will hardly be possible to erect a stable economic structure on the loose sand of depression and Inadequate exports. Consequently, what happens while the present Government is in office will go tar to settle the whole question, and -.•very word in the man-power debate now in progress which gives guide to what the Government is planning and how firm is its grip on the facts must be very carefully weighed. Mr. Attlee's speech on Wednesday was made in the proper atmosphere of seriousness and responsibility, to which the hard facts quoted by Mr. Lyttleton in opening the debate contributed. The hardest of those facts were tying up of some three million odd persons in the armed forces and the munitions industries, the low level of coal production and the heavy deficit in our current international trade account. None of Mr. Lyttleton's figures was new. Nor were the various elements in the Prime Minister's scheme of remedies for a sombre situation. But there was an indication in Mr. Attlee's speech that an attempt is in progress to put the economic activity of the next year or so . into an ordered plan governed by a scheme of priorities. He was able to quote a series of targets which will be closely watched by the public in the coming months. The object in the man-power field is to reduce the numbers in the Services to t,too,000 by Decem- ber and the numbers making munitions to 500,000. These figures still look large to a nation starved of goods of all kinds. The export target of L750,000,000 for 1946, at present prices, is also high—but commendably so. In fact, nobody would complain if it were a little higher, since it does allow some margin for capacity to be devoted to an increase in goods for consumption at home. No doubt the most delicate calculation has gone to the determination of the lowest figure compatible with the enormous productive effort required of the British people. A mistake here could be fatal.
