Speaking, presumably, about the gold and dollar reserves, the manifesto stated: The future beckons to this generation with a golden finger. No doubt, in a sense, it did—downwards. The Chancellor himself—I recall only this one pronouncement—since we have not much time—among all the quotations from Dickens in his Budget speech this year, made one confident economic prophesy. He said: Oil earnings will go on increasing …"—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 17th April, 1956; Vol. 551,. c. 870.] What have we to do to restore our economy and achieve independence of the United States of America? First, we have to get out of the immediate chaos, due to the shortage of oil. I hope that the Government will give us a little more information about the oil to be available for commercial transport. All sorts of stories are reaching us about the vital transference of materials being held up even from the factories to the railway depots in industrial areas.

But for the longer term we still have a chance, even though it may be the last chance, with dollar earnings mortgaged for years ahead, to avoid becoming an economic satellite of North America—which is something that no one on either side of the House would wish us to become. So I will put these practical points to the Government.

First, we must make it a first priority to build up adequate gold reserves. We cannot leave that as a second aim to follow on from the Government's other cherished ideas about cutting, down direct taxation, and one thing and another. This is the only way in which we shall ever achieve real independence of the United States. Gold will give us independence, not childish Motions about America on the Order Paper, and still less babyish speeches by the First Lord of the Admiralty.

Secondly, we must have some real Commonwealth planning again. Incidentally, could not we link that with some sort of Colombo Plan for the Commonwealth area? Are we not to have some Commonwealth conference of Ministers to consider this present dollar crisis at any time in the coming months? Is there to be any Commonwealth planning to make dollar economies? Whatever it was that the Minister of State, Board of Trade, said the other night, may I appeal to him to stop talking like the mouthpiece of the tobacco firms, and make it his job to see that the tobacco industry now puts the national interest first? Why not have a long-term guaranteed contract for Rhodesian tobacco? Since the right hon. Gentleman spoke, the Rhodesian producers have made a public statement flatly contradicting him, and offering to produce more tobacco, if we are willing to take it.

Thirdly, this country must establish—the Minister paid lip-service to this tonight, but said nothing about how it was to be done—a regular balance of payments surplus and a higher rate of investment. Surely, we must have big-scale investment in atomic energy, in giant tankers and in the coal industry as well as a good many other things? Might not we consider building up a strategic reserve of oil in this country? Perhaps the Economic Secretary will tell us whether, in the course of his £100 million Budget economies—which mainly consisted of running down strategic reserves—the Chancellor has been running down strategic stocks of oil, among other commodities, in the early months of this year.

All that makes it necessary—this is my fourth point—for us to get back to full production, full employment and rising productivity. That, in turn, means some selective restraints on luxury and inessential activities. How can we get the necessary investment in atomic energy, tankers, etc., without any restraint on frivolous building, or spending by those with enough already and to spare, and on unnecessary dollar imports?

Ministers are utterly wrong—I say this in particular to the President of the Board of Trade—when they say—I think they honestly believe this, though they are wrong—that some deliberate import limitation—incidentally, they practise it all the time while denying it—in order to have full production at home, means less imports and less international trade than under their deflation policy. It does not necessarily. It probably means more. It means balancing trade at a higher level, the achieving of the level of imports we can afford by deliberate measures rather than by general deflation.

Next the Government must at least have some policy for the cost of living and some sort of understanding with the trade union movement. Tonight the Minister made some rather sketchy prophecies about how far prices would rise and paid a well-deserved tribute to the trade unions. Unfortunately, the Government have not been acting in that spirit in these recent months. They have been deliberately neglecting virtually all the advice they get on economic policy from the trade union movement. Will the Minister of Labour, or someone from the benches opposite, start to repent tonight and tell us, in response to the request of the T.U.C., that the Government will proceed no further with the Rent Bill which nobody wants? If the Minister will not do that, will he tell us what is the Government's policy about the cost of living?

Does their approval last week of a 6 per cent. rise in iron and steel prices, beyond what is necessary for higher costs, mean that they want prices to go up? Or does the fact that railway charges and coal prices are held down mean that they want prices to stay down? Have they really any economic policy at all about the cost of living? We have thought in recent weeks that Boyle's law had been repealed; but has it? Do Ministers realise that, in the absence of any cost-of-living policy, and any understanding on these matters with the trade unions, before very long the chaos and conflict in industry will be as great as the chaos and conflict in Downing Street?

I have mentioned a few of the things we ought to do if the country is to regain its economic independence. What we are doing is to borrow lavishly from the United States, mortgage our gold reserves, and virtually default on our old United States debt, in order to go on smoking just that blend of tobacco that the trade and the Minister of State for the Board of Trade say we should like, and in order to avoid licensing even the more frivolous types of building. Would it not have been better to cut out at least some of these frills before begging all these extra dollars from the United States?

In December, 1951, even the Lord Privy Seal preferred to limit dollar imports and to continue control of building rather than to default on the interest on the United States loan. Why do the Government take a different decision on this matter today in precisely the same dilemma? They are really sacrificing our economic independence as a nation in order to build a few more lavish shops and offices and more garages to sell less petrol and in order to smoke a little more Virginian tobacco.

That is what the Government are doing. In assuming that the public also puts these trivialities first, the Government are once again showing that they are, in the words of Lord Tedder, utterly out of touch with the feeling of the British people.