BLACK WEEK

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 56, 15 December 1945, Page 4

BLACK WEEK

BITTERNESS IN BRITAIN PERIOD OF HARD SLOGGING (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 2 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 14 This has been a black week for Britain, with a tang of bitterness, and the nation’s distrust and uneasiness at the United States loan was fully reflected in the House of Commons, where both major parties were divided against themselves.

Yet is realised that Britain has no alternative but. to accept the loan, which Mr Churchill described as a hard bargain.” The black mood is caused by this realisation, and the tact that in the hour of her weakness, wholly due to her unique and deliberate sacrifices, the country is compelled to accept terms at which she cannot but feel resentment. Bitterness is due to the plain tact that the country must as in 1940, settle down to a long period of real hard slogging work to rebuild her fortunes, while at the same time being shackled to the United States until at least the year 2000 by the terms of the loan. On top of this there is a feeling that the United States is not acting altogether wisely; that she is no paragon of virtue, and that unless, as the world’s dominating financial country, she handles the situation judiciously and objectively, chaotic conditions may result.

Fighting for Existence

The “Manchester Guardian” says: “Perhaps the most distressing aspect of the bargain is that the American people, judging from Press comments on the loan, do not seem to have any idea’ how much will depend on further American actions. The papers have been most anxious to persuade their readers that Britain needs this loan and deserves help, but they have not told them that the United States, in forcing our protective fences prematurely, has not assumed the main responsibility for providing a world system with international _ currency. We must hope that the United States will rise to the duty she has wilfully assumed before it is too late.’’ There is also an uneasy feeling that after Britain has dragged through a long period of austerity that she may be compelled ultimately to repudiate commitments, whose fulfilment United .Slates policy may make impossible, thereby involving Britain in a future quarrel with the United States and unrestricted commercial warfare. It is fully appreciated that so much of the future depends, as Sir John Anderson told the American Chamber of Commerce, on the fact that the system of trade and finance envisaged in Washington, will succeed or fail according to whether the Amei icans realise that the process of lending dollars and exporting goods _ from the dollar area cannot go on indefinitely. There cannot be permanent one-way traffic in international trade. Fears are also entertained about the effect of the agreement on Imperial relations, and whether it may result in any slackening of the bonds of Empire, and the people here are not altogether blind to the fact that the Americans would hot strenuously object to that. It. will be a dour, grim mood m which Britain will enter the New Year —as dour and as grim as at any time throughout the war, because it is fully realised that the country is once again fighting for its existence. Britain will once again need'friends, and as in the past, she will look to the Empire.