Ministry of Materials (Strategic Reserves)

Part of Class Ix. Vote 17 – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 26 January 1953.

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Photo of Sir Arthur Salter Sir Arthur Salter , Ormskirk 12:00, 26 January 1953

As the right hon. Gentleman realises, the two sets of figures are quite different and cannot be related one to the other. He will remember that last March we were in a very desperate foreign exchange and particularly dollar crisis. What the Chancellor did, among other things, was to ease the strain by restricting dollar purchases of strategic materials. But there was not a similar and equal restriction of purchases of strategic reserves coming from other sources. If one takes the purpose of the Chancellor's original policy and statement and the actual course of what has been happening one will not find the inconsistency that the right hon. Gentleman suggests, although of course there has been a certain modification in the position as the emphasis in our balance of payments problem has changed.

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