Evening star., 1947-11-23

CcucIlGCO cCOitO1IlN Wei W S4OSC t1AS
will call for unprecedented efforts
rigidly restricted, but even 50, man
ufactured goods must be exported
to pay for these purchases. If food
is not imported, men and women
in the manufacturing industries will
not get enough to eat to continue
their work. -
AS a manufacturing and trading
nation, Britain must import most
of her raw materials. The princi-.
pal ones she must buy to survive
are all of her cotton and rubber,
nearly all of her copper, lead, alu-
minum, nickel, petrol and one-third
of her iron ore. At present she Is
mining barely enough coal for her
domestic needs, although her mines
are said to have 500 years supply.
The 1947 target Of 400, ,00o, 900 tons.
entirely for United Kingdom use.
is not likely to be reached, yet
Cripps hopes to have a surplus next
year of 10000, 900 tons for export.
Cripp's blueprint calls for diver
sion of men and materials into the
essential industries, that. is, those
which produce for export and
those, such as farming. coal. power.
steel and transport. which support
the exporting companies and their
employees. The nonessential indus
tries, such as gambling, entertain
ment and many of the domestic
services, are to be sharply eurtailed.
No Brief for Inefficiency
Exporting companies that are in
efficient or lack successful foreign
sales forces are to be deprived OF
men and supplies. To divert work.
ers and materials to the essential
industries, he has Topped of $780,
100000 from capital expenditures.
including badly needed housing.
that had been planned for the next
year. BY these bone-scraping re-
ductions he shortened the dollar
gap between exports and imports
from $1,000, ,00OO to 81 ,o0o, ,oOo. 900.
Before the war, the United King
dom used the proceeds for "invisi-
BILE" exports to pay for a third OF
all imports Of food and materials.
These were of two categories. The
first included foreign currencies
earned by British shipping, foreign
banking, foreign insurance services
and money spent by tourists and
other visitors in the United King
dom. The second represented pro-
ceeds from interest and dividends
on British investments abroad. Be-
fore World War the total Of "visi-
BILE" exports and the two types OF
invisible" exports not only paid for
all the imports but also made pos
sible savings" which went into gold
reserveA reinvestments and the up
keep of British armies and naval
forces throughout the world. These
savings" began to decline at the
of the century. World
War II changed Britain from
creditor to a debtor nation. That
war also destroyed a third OF, her
shipping and impoverished her best
customs. The Marshall plan is de-
signed to rehabilitate Western Eu-
rope; Britain, rich in skill and tech
meal ingenuity and financial expert
ence Is expected to take the lead In
this work
Public and Private Views
Cripps and other British. leaders
are reluctant to talk about the
Marshal plan, obviously fearful that
they might jeopardize congressional
He did tell the House of
Commons that the discussions In
Washington were "the most mo-
mentous for the whole future OF
democratic civilization in Europe"
Publicly the government leaders
assert that their plans do not in
clude American aid. There is strong
evidence that they are counting on
it. Cripps put it this way: >
."Our very pride and independ-
ence make us unwilling to accept
help from others until at least va
have done our utmost to help our
selves"
But when he announced that the
program required reduc-
tion Of food from 2,s70 calories to
, 100 calories a day 10 keep from
exhausting the gold reserves by the
middle of next year, he observed:
UNLESS something turns up to
alter the situation, we shall have,
our reserves TO- about the
minimum operable level and shall
have nothing further to help U.s. I'LL
he dollar deficit. In that event We
should have to cut savagely at our
of living and moreover
We should be in such o weak eco
nomic position that we should be
almost forced to accept any condi-
ions that were imposed upon us
or any help we were: offered.
More Than Economic Survival
THAT is prospect which the gov
'rnment Is not prepared to face II
" any means it can BE avoided" y
Although he was addressing the
House Of Commons, he was talking
o the United States Congress when
le said:
1T is not merely our economic
with which we are, con-
erned, it is something more. We
re in every sense fighting the bat
lie of democracy as much as we
we're during the war. Our struggle
S to maintain the decent standards
md the freedom that our ever