“BRITAIN DRIVEN INTO CORNER”

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25272, 26 August 1947, Page 7

“BRITAIN DRIVEN INTO CORNER”

AMERICA BLAMED FOR PRESENT FEELING (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 8 p.m.), LONDON, August 25. The “Economist” says: “American opinion should be warned that Britain has a feeling that she is being driven into a corner by a complex of American actions and inconsistencies, which in combination are quite intolerable. “Not many people in this country believe the Communist thesis that it is the deliberate and conscious aim of American policy to ruin Britain and everything Britain stands for in the world, but the evidence can certainly be read that way. If every time aid is extended conditions are attached which make it impossible for Britain ever to escape the necessity of going back fot still more aid, obtained with still more abasement and on still more crippling terms, then the result will certainly be what the Communists predict, ’hether or not it is what the Americans intend.

“The crippling of British trade that was one of the conditions of leaselend increased the dimensions of the aid needed in 1945. The now famous Articles 7 to 10 of the loan agreement, with their obligations of convertibility and non-discrimination, have brought the British back to Washington earlier and in a worse plight than was necessary. “Is it really the Americans’ wish that this process should continue? They should be warned that every time it is repeated something more is subtracted from British willingness to offer genuine co-operation in building the sort of world Americans want. “Do they really prefer a resentful dependency to a self-supporting and self-respecting friend? They should realise that the British Government has made very great efforts and has been willing to run very grave risks in agreeing to American conceptions of international economic policy. No Government could have put more of its interests in pawn to pledge its goodwill—no other has made a similar effort.

“For the present, the Americans retain the right to make the British Government jump through any hoop they choose. But this dependence will not last for ever. The time will come when by a combination of external events and internal efforts Britain will be able to do without dollars at any price that will be bearable. “Do the Americans, when that time comes, want the British to regard cutting loose from America as a boon so great that it is of the highest possible moment? They can be assured that there are very many Englishmen'who would regard anything of the sort as sn unparalleled disaster. But they can also be assured that that is the way things are drifting at present. “Let the Americans forget for a moment their conviction that their present wealth and strength are the result of superior virtue, and remember the Europeans’ conviction that they are merely due to better luck. Let them worry less ab t what they can afford to give and more about what they can afford nqt to give. Let them all try to realise what it feels like to be in other men’s shoes.”