§ 2.41 p.m.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE DUCHY OF LANCASTER (VISCOUNT SWINTON)My Lords, with the permission of the House I should like to, make a statement on the price and use of newsprint. As the House is aware, for many years past the maximum price of home-produced newsprint has been controlled by Order; and it has been the practice of the Ministers responsible—in succession the Minister of Supply, the President of the Board of Trade and the Minister of Materials—to fix a maximum price as a result of a periodical review, based on the cost of production and the replacement cost of raw material. I expressed the view some time ago, both to the newspapers and to the paper mills, that it would be desirable if they could come to a mutually satisfactory agreement to substitute an agreed price for a controlled 495 price. I am glad to say that the Newsprint Supply Company, on behalf of the newspapers, and the Association of Makers of Newsprint, on behalf of the mills, have now reached agreement as to the price for the current half year. For all newsprint produced in this country the price will be £56 a ton. I am accordingly revoking the existing Maximum Price Order and I do not propose to make another Order in its place. The power to make an Order remains. I hope it will not be necessary to employ it again; but should the necessity arise, the power will be there. The existing arrangements, by which newspapers all over the country draw their supplies from the most convenient source, will continue, and the arrangement under which all newspapers pay the same price for newsprint, whether imported or home produced, will also continue in operation. I think the House will agree that this is a very satisfactory arrangement.
I have also been considering, in consultation with the Newsprint Supply Company, the rather complicated rationing system under which the use of newsprint is now controlled. The combination of tonnage and page rationing allows little flexibility. The newspapers have proposed to me that the existing system should be amended by the suspension of tonnage rationing and by a slight variation in the system of page rationing. Despite the import cuts we are making the existing stocks and current supplies will permit some small increase in the consumption of newsprint in the current half year. The newspapers fully realise that this increase can only be on a modest scale and that it may well be that the imports of newsprint (from sources other than Canada) may have to be reduced next year. I know that the newspapers, through the Newsprint Supply Company, will conduct their operations with the same sense of responsibility in the future as they have in the past, and with due regard to the importance of conserving stocks and to the prospects next year. The newspapers have in fact for years past operated the rationing system very efficiently themselves in consultation with, and subject to the general direction of, the Ministry. But the changes which I have now approved will give greater flexibility to the newspapers, so that all 496 newspapers can use the limited supplies of paper as they find most convenient and to the best advantage. The new plan will also serve to provide an up-to-date basis for tonnage rationing should this prove necessary at a later date. It is intended that the new arrangement should be given a trial run for the next six months, and the Newsprint Supply Company have assured me that they will watch operations closely during that period, and will not hesitate to put on a brake should consumption of paper show a tendency to rise above the modest increase they think likely to result. The Ministry will keep in close touch with the Newsprint Supply Company in watching the operation of the new system; and the position will be reviewed towards the end of the trial period.
§ 2.44 p.m.
§ LORD LAYTONMy Lords, speaking not as a Liberal but as a member of the Press, I should like to thank the noble Viscount, Lord Swinton, for the statement which he has just made. We hope that the situation which he has described will give a certain greater elasticity to the Press, both in respect of the negotiation of prices and in regard to supply. I should also like to thank him for the great pains he has taken during the last few weeks in studying a very complicated question and for the appreciation he has expressed of what has been effected by the self-control of perhaps the most competitive industry in the world.
The statement the noble Viscount has read about the new price of newsprint, which is the first intimation that will go out to the public, will be extremely welcome to the newspapers of the country. For the first five months of this year the price of newsprint has been £66 a ton, and for the last half of the year it will be £56 a ton, which is a very considerable reduction. But pre-war, in 1938, it was £10 a ton, so there is still a very long way to go. I should also like to express our appreciation for the five words in this statement, "from sources other than Canada," because in these words the noble Viscount has given us an assurance that there is no present intention to interfere with the long-term contracts in Canada, a matter which has occasioned such difficulty and trouble to the Press of this country. Apparently, the Government have at last accepted the basic 497 proposition, which we have so often insisted upon, that if the Press is to continue, there must be some insurance in the Western Hemisphere against failure, financial difficulties and other problems in setting a price here for pulp and newsprint from Scandinavia. On military, political and financial grounds that assurance is necessary; and we have here the assurance that the Government recognise the importance of that proposition.
In conclusion, may I express the hope that the warning to the Press that in the first half of next year it may be necessary to reduce imports of newsprint from Scandinavia does not mean that these cuts will be severe, because I would remind the House that the newspapers in this country are still among the smallest in the world? But, of course, it will not help very much to lift the consumption restrictions on newsprint unless the other condition to which I have referred is fulfilled—namely, the further easing of the price of newsprint, one of the raw materials most important to the newspaper industry and the price of which is still far too high. I assure the noble Viscount that the Newsprint Supply Company will watch the situation during this trial period with the greatest care and will keep in touch with him as closely as possible.
§ 2.48 p.m.
§ EARL JOWITTMy Lords, I was going to say how glad I am that this has been done for an experimental period of six months. I think we all agree that there is no point whatever in keeping on controls for the sake of keeping them on, and if the supply situation eases, with the, result that a considerable reduction in price can be obtained, that is all to the good. Let us by all means try it. I think the noble Viscount is wise in keeping this power, so that if the matter does not turn out quite as he hopes, he will be able to rearm himself again. This is not an easy control at all. We found it very difficult. We found that there was always a danger that by means of this control we might be put in a position in which we were in fact imposing a censorship of the Press. One might have had difficulty in giving paper to popular journals who wanted it. And it is very difficult to provide for newcomers into this field. All these matters have to be considered and 498 I daresay care will be taken of them. I express the hope, for myself and my noble friends who sit on this side of the House, that the effect of this change will be a sharp reduction in the price of newspapers.
§ LORD LAYTONMy Lords, I assure the noble and learned Earl that nothing of that kind is in the least likely to happen until the price of newsprint has come down much further.