BOOKS ACCURATE SURVEY, FABIAN CONCLUSIONS

The Witches of Satem. (Academy. London)

M.P. Fabian Tract 309 (Fabian Society. Is. 6d.)

THE VALUABLE part of Harold Wilson’s pamphlet is his survey of Britain’s post-war history. There he shows the plight of British economy at the end of the war and its decline in relation to the United States.

He declares that the problems facing Britain could not have been solved without the ‘intefnal planning and controls’ of the Labour Government. But his survey shows that the basic problems were left untouched when the Labour Government failed to dig out capitalism at its roots.

We are told that a ‘desperate condition’ of all European economies was overcome by Marshall aid. ‘But in the spring of 1949 the whole basis of our recovery was knocked away by a slight recession in America. This was no slump, merely a minor recession in American economic activity ..

The outbreak of the Korean war caused a boom in dollar earnings and pushed up gold and dollar reserves. Vhere followed a period when ‘world trade remained active and there was a continuing healthy demand for British exports’.

Wilson’s solution for a capitalist economy dependent on world trade conditions is essentially the same as that of the Tory Government—increase the drive for exports. He would attempt it slightly differently, of course.

His policy for a Labour Government is to spur forward increased investment as a means to maximum production, to ‘pay our way abroad’ and earn a surplus ‘for the very necessary task of investing in under-developed areas abroad’.

But the colonial peoples will rightly view increased investment as increased exploitation. Certainly these areas need the products. of British industry. as we need their primary products, The foundation for a joint solution of problems 1s their independence.

And a Fabian wind-break of ‘controls’ and share-buying will be secant protection against an economic blizzard when it blows on the world market.