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Page 480- The White Paper policy, which has been a most material part of our dis- inflation drive over the last two years, must now be reinforced. If we were now to allow costs to rise as a result of higher wages and salaries, we should very rapidly deprive ourselves of all the advantages of our lowered exchange rate. The White Paper must, therefore, be observed strictly, and it is only in the exceptional and genuine cases where some wage survives which, together with all the subsidies and social services, is insufficient to provide a family with a minimum reasonable standard of living, that there can be any possible excuse for going forward with a claim for an increase..
But even if such an increase is given to those at the bottom; we cannot accept the maintenance of differentials or relativities as any argument for present increases to those who are receiving higher rates. Especially and specifically there can, in our view, be no justification for any section of workers trying to recoup themselves for any increase in the cost of living due to the altered exchange rate. That is a general burden spread over all, and must be accepted as a very real and essential contribution towards the avoidance of mass unemployment.
Page 480
Page 480
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