BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26032, 8 February 1950, Page 5

BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY

MR BEVIN DEFENDS LABOUR AIMS

EUROPEAN RECOVERY SAID TO BE ASSURED

’Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, February 7. The British Foreign Secretary (Mr Ernest Bevin), defending the Labour Government’s foreign and domestic policies in an election speech in Norfolk last night, claimed that Britain now had friends abroad where the once had nothing but hard looks, and that the Conservative Party’s economics, ac opposed to Labour’s, were the sort of economics “now landing Germany into a mess.” Mr Bevin said that when he became Foreign Secretary, one of the fundamental things he laid down was that he could de nothing in international affairs unless he had a sound, strong and planned economy at home. He said that a good deal had been made of Marshall aid. The Conservatives called it charity, but he would like to know what they would have done if they had been in hit place. Mr Bevin said Europe had been a cesspool of misery and chaos until Marshall aid came. He had accepted American aid, and did not reaard it as charity. There were still difficulties to overcome, hut Europe was saved. “Europe will, in my opinion, not go down, and if Europe does not go down, cur security is thereby enhanced, and our security for development Is thereby improved,” Mr Bevin added.