Evening star., 1942-05-10
British Will Control
Prices Of Nearly
All Goods
Furniture Freezing
Foreshudows General
CIomp-Down
BY EDWARD ROBINSON,
Wide World Foreirn staff

LONDON, May 9.-The British
government pegged furniture prices
this week and moved towards con-
troll OF prices of practically all goods
h common use.
The freezing Of furniture quota
tions came after newspaper cam
paign against what was called the
furniture racket"
The press charged that merchants
were asking 5000 for a 3-piece
bedroom suite that cost $32 before
the war and as much as $125 for a
bed which in pre-war days would
have cost $35 complete with mat
tress and springs. .
Regulation committees busted
themselves with studies of house.
hold linens, crockery, cooking uten-
sils and the like in preparation for
the clamp-down.
Crow Pie Favored.
Crow pie-of the European vari-
ETY. Of crow, known as rook-was
expected to show up on many din
her tables next week.
The rocks, one of the worst enc
mics of Britain's farmers, are the
object of one Of the nations fiercest
drives to boost agricultural pro-
duction to new record highs.
The food ministry was crossing
It's fingers and hoping the weather
wouldn't join the rocks In "sabotag-
ing" Br1tain's crops.
The ministry has promised an
allowance Of six to seven pounds of
tomatoes per person this season.
Last year promise Of two pounds Of
onions per person was only half
fulfilled because Of bad weather.
Giving point to the drive to pro-
duce more vegetables was a change
In the amount of some meats that
could be bought with ration
coupons.
Salmon, luncheon meats and
tongues were made more valuable
In terms Of ration book points" in
order to turn the public's attention
to meat balls and vegetable prepa-
rattons and sausage meats.
Fuel Rationing Scored.
Opposition to the Governments
plan to ration gas, coal and elec-
tricity continued but was believed
too weak to prevent some form of
checking use of those fuels.
At the same time, however, 1t was
reported that 1000 more miners
would be released from the armed
forces to work the coal pits. There
also was talk of mining outcrop
deposits-those available without ex-
tensive tunneling-to obtain possible
10000 900 tons of coal
That amount. proponents of such
operations said, would equal the
amount that would be saved by ra-
tioning.
The drawbacks were lack OF men,
transportation and access to the
land.
Stock Market Firm.
Stock market buyers, after the
action at Madagascar, kept prices
firm in the face OF disappointing
news from Burma.
Analysts said the absence of spec
ulative opportunities elsewhere had
increased interest In South Ameri-
can stocks. There was a sudden
rise in midweek IN the demand
for Mexican government and rail-
way issues.
An official declaration that war
time economic controls would be
continued into the era of peace
with suitable adaptations" was
credited with giving long term
issues a lift IN the git-edged
market.
Government expenditures and re-
eeipts both were up this week.
The country's ordinary expendi-
GIre totaled $500 1858 900, up $751;
000, 900 from the previous week War
supplies accounted for $435 5,360, 900
Of the total.
The weeks receipts. at $253, ,732,-
900 were the best for the new budget
year.