IMPERIAL PREFERENCE

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27988, 7 June 1956, Page 18

IMPERIAL PREFERENCE

Sir, —I, too, would like to believe that all is well with I.M.F. and G.A.T.T. in Britain’s case. Eut I cannot believe that the tremendous damage which Britain suffered in her United States relations cannot happen again. Britain was catapulted into the tragic 1930’s depression through the United States initial internal withdrawal of £33,000,000,000 of overdrafts This blow, incidentally, raised Britain’s war debt by the equivalent of £10,000,000,000, with a corresponding lowering of land, factory, and mine values by £17,000,000,000. And this, remember, was in addition to the staggering result of the world war blitzing, and the steep rise of the national debt to £26,000,000,000. While Britain valiantly “held the bridge” alone until America came into the fray—only when attacked! When Britain was loaned her £ 3,000,000.000, the United States ruthlessly lifted all price controls, thus sabotaging much of the loan’s purchasing power. The same “friends” pull the strings today.— Yours, etc., FLAMBEAU. June 6, 1956.

[The correspondent has given some good reasons for seeking, by every possible means, to bind the United States to an internationally agreed code of commercial conduct—just such a code as the I.M.F. and G.A.T.T. together provide—Ed.. “The Press.”] v