Q4. Mr. Fletcher-Cookeasked the Prime Minister whether he will re-allocate responsibilities between the First Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in view of the economic problems arising from the trend of Great Britain's trade figures.
§ The Prime MinisterNo, Sir.
Mr. Fletcher-CookeWould not the Prime Minister, in his heart, have preferred to answer "Yes" to this Question? Whatever the arguments in the past for this system of dual control, now that we are coming into a critical time in sterling, is it not desirable to prevent even the appearance of a conflict between an expansionist Department of Economic Affairs and a deflationary Treasury? Is it not right to have one strong hand on the tiller?
§ The Prime MinisterI am not aware of the conflict to which the hon. and learned Gentleman refers. If his facts were 1829 right, I am not sure whether he was suggesting that we follow the path of deflation or expansion. While there are tremendously important functions within the control of the Treasury affecting certainly the balance of payments, monetary control, taxation, expenditure, and so on, it is highly important—this is where we have gone wrong in the past—to have an expensionist plan to see that we get the right industrial expansion and the right investment, particularly in our export industries. Nearly all our balance of payments difficulties in the last year or two—I am not complacent about this—have arisen from the fact that we have inadequately expanded capacity in those industries which have the biggest job to do in exports and import saving.
§ Sir C. OsborneWhat on earth is the good of asking business men to increase exports when, as I show in Question No. 42, which the right hon. Gentleman transferred, we are sending goods to the docks which the dockers will not handle for export? Will the right hon. Gentleman look at that side of the problem?
§ The Prime MinisterAs I have explained in the House before—indeed, I have expressed my concern about congestion in the docks and spent a lot of time on it—we have a very important Economic Development Council dealing with the problem of services for exports, including the docks. I am urgently awaiting, as I am sure the hon. Gentleman is, the report of the Devlin Commission, which I hope will tell us what needs to be done in the docks.