Evening star., 1951-04-29
The Problem of Raw Materials

In reshufaing his cabinet as result Of the
left-wing Laborite revolt led by Aneurin Bevan,
Prime Minister Attlee has made a point of en-
phasizing that his government-while repudiat
ing the rebels butter-before- guns thesis-is one
with them in. recognizing the urgent Importance
OF insuring an adequate flow of essential raw
materials to Britain. Accordingly in naming
Richard Stokes to the post OF Lord Privy Seal,
he has directed Mr.. Stokes to organize special
new department to see that Britain gets enough
Of those materials to carry out the rearmament
program with the least possible strain on the
civilian economy.
This is a sound and necessary move. For
Mr.. Bevan, even though he has gone to ridicu-
lous extremes in criticizing the United States
and in placing social objectives ahead of i'm
perative defense needs, has effectively drama
tized what is undeniably serious problem for
Britain and for all our other overseas Allies in
the Atlantic Pact. Stated with some oversm-
plification, the problem is this: That the Western
worlds rearmament program has created an
extraordinary demand for vital raw materials;
that the international scramble for them has
sent their prices sky high; that our tremen-
douSly accelerated American production is tend
ing to "gobble them up," and that unless their
limited supply is increased or equitably shared
and allocated the recovery promoted by the
Marshall Plan will be set back in free Europe
where civilian economies will be hard hit and
living standards depressed to the danger point
Although Mr.. Bevan and people of like mind
have expounded upon 1t in extremist terms, such
possibility is real enough to call for prompt
and vigorous preventive action by all the nations
concerned. AS the chief user of raw materials
our own country must take the lead in the mat
ter. Between now and the end of 1853, our re-
armament program is supposed to reach its peak
through such a great expansion in productive
capacity that our living standards will be about
as high-which means relatively very high-as
they were just before the outbreak of the Korean
war In other words, what we are engaged in
is project calculated to produce plenty of guns
and plenty of butter simultaneously. Many of
our friends abroad however, fear that in carry
ing out that project the United States will buy
up or absorb so much of the worlds scarce
commodities that their own economies will be
sent into tailspin.
There is good reason to believe that this
is an exaggerated fear but there is sufficient
substance to it to warrant careful and sympa-
thetic attention. The British and most of our
other Atlantic Allies have living standards 50
austere that ours look comparatively luxurious
Hence, with rearmament likely to cause some
further increase in that austerity it is Of first
Importance to do everything possible to keep
the increase to minimum lest civilian morale
be shattered To that end, nothing could be
more essential than that the United States do
whatever it can to promote an equitable sharing
of raw materials on a scale designed to enable
these nations to attain their goals in military
production without dangerously slashing the
output of consumer goods
Together with France and Britain, the
United States has already taken the lead in
setting up an organization to deal with the prob
lem. The organization-the international Ma
terials Conference-now has more than 20 coun-
tries participating. But its work must be speeded
up past the talking stage into the field of decision
and action. Given genuine cooperation all
around 1t undoubtedly can do much to increase
the output Of scarce commodities and allocate
them fairly. Beyond that. if the requirements
are met in this particular, and if there is no
all-out war, our European friends ought to be
able, through improved techniques, better man
agement, lower trade barriers, etc.. to start NOV
ing toward the goal which Marshall Plan officials
say they can reach within the next ten years
namely, 1o0-billion- dollar expansion in their
annual productive capacity. With such an ex-
pansion Of course the impact of defense on their
civilian economies would be greatly lessened.
Rain Check for Mr.. Churchill
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