Evening star., 1947-08-07
Brituin's Plight

The gravity of Britains economic plight
Is made clearer than ever by the steps
Prime Minister Attlee proposes to take to
meet 1t. The root trouble Is an acute short
age of dollars and an insufficient produc-
ton of export goods to pay for the vast
quantities of imports that the country must
have to live. The situation is critical; If
nothing were done about 1t, 1t could lead
to collapse whose consequences would be
serious in the extreme, not for the British
alone. but for the whole free world as
against the world of the totalitarians.
Accordingly, Mr. Attlee has announced to
Parliament that the Labor government In
tends to undertake far-reaching pro-
gram designed to conserve dollars and
step up export production as much AS
possible The principal measures In mind
are: 0) Further cuts in nonessential i'm
ports: (2) negotiations with the United
States to ease some of the terms OF the
Anglo-American loan agreement; 90 ad-
dtional reduction In the size OF Brita1n's
armed forces, saving money and making
more men available for industrial output
a. action to increase the work week Of
coal miners and other essential workers,
and 60 new controls-involving some
sacrifice of individual liberty"-to limit
employment In nonproduct1ve enterprises
and distribute manpower efficiently among
the key industries.
To Britons who have been doing without
for so many years, the proposal for further
cuts In imports can mean only more belt
Tightening and "austerity," and some OF
Mr.. Attlee's other measures-notably for
limiting the choice of employment and
controlling the distribution of labor-will
strike them as a drastic departure from
their country's peacetime traditions. Yet
the situation Is such that extraordinary
action Is necessary. Perhaps, as the Con-
servative opposition charges, much of this
could have been avoided had the Attlee
government shown more foresight and
competence in the past, but that does not
alter the fact that 1t cannot be avoided
nav II Britain Is to surmount the export
import crisis ahead. To do nothing, to let
nature take It's course, would be simply to
invite national economic disintegration
AS for Americas interest in all this, the
State Department and the Treasury have
declared their readiness to negotiate over
reasonable proposals to help Britain con-
serve dollars by easing certain terms Of
the loan agreement. The negotiations ap-
parently are to begin at once. The situa-
ton calls for prompt action. 1t does not
fall within the framework OF the long
term arrangements contemplated under
the Marshall plan for European recovery,
though that plan certainly must loom large
In any consideration of the British future.
The British are in difficulty primarily
because the dislocations of war have trans
formed them from creditor to debtor
nation and upset their normal system Of
trade. Rasically, the storm they face is
temporary in character. In Mr.. Attlee's
words, 1t does not justify panic among
them. They still have great skill and in
dustry at their disposal, and II they en-
ploy them to the full, they will get back on
their feet. To that end, the United States
has every reason to help in whatever way
IT. cantor its own well-being and the
well-being of the antitotalitarian world.