Britain Must Not Count On U.S. Aid

Northern Advocate, 9 January 1948, Page 3

Britain Must Not Count On U.S. Aid

Lripps Warns . .

LONDON, Thur.—Within an hour of the announcement in Washington of details of the proposed aid for Western Europe under the Marshall Plan, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir Stafford Cripps), at a Press conference

in London, gave warning of Britain’s plight if the aid did not materialise. “We must not count upon it,” Sir Stafford said, “but we shall be in a grave position as regards dollars unless it is forthcoming. “We should not be able to get

through without further cuts in the imports of food and raw material from the Western Hemisphere essential to support our present production.

“Without assistance so far as the dollar shortage is concerned we could not play our part in European recovery and, therefore, in the recovery of the world, but we should be driven back upon a policy of immediate self-preser-vation. RELY ON OWN EFFORTS “This, obviously, provides no solution for a country like ours, dependent for its prosperity and, indeed, for its existence, upon international trade.” Everyone, he said, was conscious of the far-sighted generosity of the Marshall Plan as an aid to world recovery, but the plan would not allow any “let up” and it would not go on for ever. “We must,” he added, “rely on our own efforts rather than on any form of outside aid; and let us have no doubts that these efforts will have to be determined and sustained." Sir Stafford said that widespread increases in wages and prices could lead to some uncontrolled inflation which would ruin Britain’s trade.

Only increased overall production justified wage increases. “TEMPORARY CRUTCH”

The Glasgow Herald says American aid is a temporary crutch during convalescence, but the major part of the cure rests with the patient, not with the physician. The Daily Telegraph says American aid under the plan is designed to meet the gap between dollar earnings and dollar spending. There*are now no other apparent means by which it can be met. The Daily Mail says: “We do not want to live on easy street at America’s expense. We want to find the way back to main street—and she can help us on the road.” The Daily Express, while praising the idealism and motives of the plan, argues that Britain can recover alone and has resources at home and in the Empire to do so. Government statistics show that the import cuts imposed in August reduced Britain’s imports of food, drink and tobacco in the ensuing three months by £24,000,000. The reduction in total imports was £34,000,000. ALL OR NOTHING If the Republicans in Congress went ahead with their threats to cut the total of America’s contribution to the Marshall Plan, they might as well abandon the whole project, said the Secretary of State (Mr Marshall) to the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate states a message from Washingon.

“Either undertake to meet the requirements of the problem,” he said, “or don’t undertake it at all.” He added: “The way of life we have known is in the balance, so this unprecedented endeavour of the New World to help the Old is neither sure nor easy.

“It is a calculated risk. “It provides the means for success, and if we maintain the will for success, I believe that success will be achieved. “Otherwise the vacuum which was created in Western Europe will be filled by forces of which wars are made.” START BY APRIL 1 Mr Marshall said the programme must be started by April 1 at the latest, otherwise there would be a serious deterioration in some of the basic conditions on which the whole project was based. An American contribution of $6,800,000,000 for the first 15 months was the absolute minimum. The total cost to the United States of the whole four-and-a-quarter-year period would be between $15,000,000,000 and $17,800, 1 000,000. “If the plan either doe*s not get through Congress or fails,” he added, “our national security will be threatened and we shall, in effect, live in an armed camp.” Mr Marshall referred to the “avowed determination of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party to sabotage the programme at every turn” and admitted that his would make its success ■more difficult. NO DISTASTEFUL CONDITIONS He also warned the committee against any attempts to tie distasteful or economic conditions to the ict, pointing out that the United States could not expect any democratic Government to, take on itself obligations or accept conditions which ran counter to the basic national sentiment of its people. “We can either decide that the United States is unable or unwilling to assist in the reconstruction of Western Europe," he added, "or we 'can accept the consequences of its collapse into a dictatorship of police states.”