BRITAIN BUYS TIME

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21923, 18 January 1946, Page 3

BRITAIN BUYS TIME

REGAIN STABILITY

U.S. LOAN DEFENDED

CHURCHILL'S COMMENT

(10 a.m.) NEW YORK, Jan. 17. “We are buying time to get on our feet again,” said Mr. Winston Churchill at a press conference when he defended the proposed 3,750,000,000-dollar credit to Britain. “It will be used to help Britain to regain economic poise and strength,” he added. “We have suffered more financially than any other country. Now we face the extraordinary situation of buying food and raw materials with a very heavy adverse balance of trade. I think His Majesty’s Government would never desire to raise the social and economic standards of the British people at the expense of other people, but unless we are given a chance to regain our stride we may not be able again to take our place as a producing nation. “We have borrowed every penny we can. Now we are anxious to earn our living and be independent.” Asked whether he considered the world trend toward collectivism was a temporary phenomenon, Mr. Churchill replied that the Left movement which swent him out of office was a world movement. “We must be careful that liberty and enterprise are not strangled or baffled,” he said. Labour’s Experiments Discussing the Labour Party's programme, he said that important experiments were being tried and should be tried at present. He considered that the nationalisation of the Bank of England more a matter of form than of fact, but the nationalisation of coal mines and railways would have to prove its practicability. “It is for those making the experiment to show there is more coal, better service and the employees are more content." He did not believe there

would be such good service or such economic and financial advtantages as his political opponents expected from nationalisation.

Asked if he agreed with the recent utterances of Professor Laski, chairman of the Labour Party, Mr. Churchill said: “T certainly hope you will not let anything he says be the cause of ill-will between our two countries.” Retention of Bases Desired

Mr. Churchill declared that unquestionably the British people wanted the United States to retain the bases they had leased for 99 years. He pointed out that the bases were originally granted because the safety of the United States “depended on your having them, and your interests are our interests.”

Mr. Churchill said he deprecated constant verbal attacks levelled at the Franco Government, and said the proud Spaniards had undergone a cruel civil war and now wanted to settle their own affairs. He added that the attacks only consolidated Spanish public opinion against foreign intervention.

A woman reporter asked Mrs. Churchill what British women had learned during the war. “We had to learn to cook much better,” replied the wartime Prime Minister's wife.

Asked what women should contribute toward permanent peace, she answered: “If you are young, get married and have babies. If you are old. I do not know—keen out of the way. I suppose.”