The Wilmington morning star., 1947-02-12
TODAY
and

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be posed as to what we
can do to prevent the British cri-
sis, Or what we shall do if we
The task which the peoples in
the British Isles have had to set
themselves is beyond anything
which a free people has ever at
tempted in time of peace. They
are trying to carr enough to main
tain an austere standard Of life
at home and to support their far
flung commitments abroad. To
make themselves solvent in this
sense, they need to produce and
sell for export abroad ITS per cent
of what they exported in 1888.
They r trying to do this with
free labor, that is to say without
the compulsion of war time or of
a t~otalitarian state. They are ask
ing this extraordinary effort from
a people who are tired from the
immense strain of the war, who
have had little rest or recreation
from the nerve-Wracking exertions
and anxieties which they endured
when they stood virtually alone.
They are attempting to do it with
an industrial plant which was for
the most part none too modern,
and under val conditions could
not be adequately maintained.
Moreover. they are being asked
to do this in a great hurry
that is to say before the Canadian
and American credits r used up.
The time is too short. The margin
on which they r operating is too
thin. That is shown by the fact
that they are spending their
credits much faster than they
planned to spend them. The plain
truth is that they needed more
time and more help, and if they
do not get them, the position in the
United Kingdom and in the EN-
pire will in a year or so be critical.
If this crisis is not prevented.
it will almost certainly produce a
radical change in the internal life
of the British Isles and, at the
same time, a forced and disorder
ly liquidation of so many British
external commitments that the
whole situation in Europe, Africa
and Asia will become inordinate1y
more difficult to manage peace
ably.
The moderate and graduaI So
cialism which is now being put
into effect in Britain will not, as
some may vainly suppose, be re-
placed by a return to what we
call free enterprise. In the condi-
ton of scarcity which will exist,
much more drastic government
compulsion is sure to be neces-
sary, and it will be applied. For
free enterprise is a system which
works only when there is security
and plenty. The British will have
neither, and there is no chance
that they could or would. once the
credits are exhausted and they
must live on their own resources,
do anything but resort to the
kind of government : di-
collectivism.
The abandonment of the British
type of free, moderate and gradual
socialism will force western Eu-
rope to abandon it also. This NAV
not mean the acceptance of the
method. It is more
to mean that the middle par
ties will become submerged, and
that there will ensue a fierce
between the extremists of
the Right and the extremists of
the Left.
Thus the collapse Of the British
attempt at postwar reconstruction
is not uncomfortable. 1t is even
if heroic measures are
not taken in time. If the collapse
occurs, the United States will be
politically and economically isola-
ted from Europe, and indeed from
the greater part OF the Eurasian
Continent.
Already the financial and eco
nomic deficit is SO severe that the
British government is not able to
as an equal partner in
a constructive settlement. It is
by its immediate difficult
ties-by the shortage of dollars, OF
man power, of consumer goods
and capital equipment-and it
is compelled to resort to all man.
ner OF expedients to tide over i'm
mediate emergencies.
Thus the compelling considera-
ton in its German policy is the
fact that the. British zone, though
the richest part Of Europe. is for
the time being a financial liability
which causes a heavy drain upon
Britain's dwindling supply of dol
Unless some way can be
to relieve the financial
squeeze, The British government
will not be able to afford the lux
ury of a statesmanlike RECONSTRUCT
ton Of Germany and of Europe,
and will be driven instead to look
for a settlement" which is in fact
temporary economic bargain be-
tween its own financial needs and
the Soviet need for immediate rep
arations.
In the critical area of the Medi-
terranean and the Middle East,
the British imperial position lacks
the necessary reserves of military
force and of money to support it.
Military power requires men, and
the British are desperately short