Evening star., 1948-02-22
British Face
ALongPull
Need Americas Help
to Keep Wheels
Turning
By Blair Moody

q sort of grim postwar prosperity.
She is living in a strange economic
paradox-producing more than she
can consume, but still consuming
more than she can afford.
She is eating less than during
the war-20 cents worth of meat
per person per week, with bread.
potatoes and nearly everything else
but fish and vegetables rationed
But there is no unemplo
wages are up rs per cent over pre-
war with the prices of necessities
held down by controls. Produc-
ton in many lines is breaking all
records, but it is still not enough
to cover the bills for her imports
The shops display fine clothing
but the average Londoner is shabby
eenteel. He is short of points, can't
buy and accepts used clothing
brought from the United States with
gratitude. Cigarettes sell for Ga
cents a package, of which Sc cents
Is tax.
The night clubs are full, at high
prices, and most require formal
dress. But those who appear to
be squandering as usual are living
off their capital or charging it up
to business expense accounts, a
widespread practice. Taxes virtual
ly shut off current income above
$4,000 year.
Mild Winter a'Godsend
The average family saves its meat
points for the weekend "joint." A
mother, father and two children
with their four ration books, can
get very respectable, if not large
roast of beef once each week-for
about so cents. Most meals are
''pieced out" chiefly fish and ap-
parently always brussels sprouts.
The rationing of the wartime fill
ers," bread and potatoes, came as
q blow.
No one really gets any milk but
the children. The bacon ration is
2 ounces week. Coal is strictly
rationed-and this winters mild
weather has been a Godsend. The
diet ir general is well described as
"austere," and probably affects pro-
duction to some extent. Yet the
lowest income groups, because the
nations short supplies have been
divided equally, are living better
than before the war. There is some
black market, but not much, be-
cause the government controls so
much of the food through imports.
1t takes even longer to get an
automobile than in the United
States and there is no use to buy
one except strictly for business, for
there is no basic gasoline ration.
Most of Britain's private cars are
in garages, up on stills. 1t takes
months to get most mechanical
gadgets-and individual items on
sale in every United States drug
store are often handled and ex-
amined as If in awe of America S
productive wonders. (Our drug
stores are not appreciated until you
can't find one.)
Luxury Goods Exported
Fine brands of china, for which
Britain has been famous, are unob-
tainable in the stores. And the
vital modernization of British in
dustry, which eventually must pull
the island out of the mire if any
thing does, is being held back for
lack of machinery.
Yet a flood of luxury products are
rolling out of British factories-and
right out of the country. Britain
is exporting machinery, and sorely
depriving its own plants by doing
so. Shortly these machines will be
making goods for other nations
competing for markets in which
Britain must prosper. if at all.
For behind the sWank exterior
and too-too-superior attitude still
prevalent among the night-club-
bling upper r-crusters-and also be-
hind the hard work and gamely
born privations of the ordinary, solid
British family-lies strangely dis
torted economy, twisted by war,
which has a chance of coming back
only through American aid.
Whichever party were in power
Labor or the Tories-the basic policy
of the cabinet would have to be
the same: Britain must hold down
it's home consumption while it races
to build up exports to a point SUI
ficiently high to cover the cost OF
food and raw materials the island
must have to live.
In general. the scarcity OF con-
sumer goods in the midst OF ex-
port plenty is borne splendidly by
the people They seem to think
the cabinet has It's faults but it's
sure trying, mister" as one cab
driver put it. Only one casual con-
tact was critical of "austerity"-
the motel porter did not want to
press suit in a hurry when he was
told that it was needed for an in
terview with Sir Stafford Crlpps,
Freeze Order Was Shock
"Austerity Cripps, sir?" he said.
"Hes got the goods but won't give
'em to us.
For the most part, the British
have a clearer conception of what
their country faces than the hotel
porter. They appear to understand
the basic idea of what has hap
pened-the defamation of the vast
overseas holding which once enable
the United Kingdom to live, as a
nation, on a partly coupon clipping
standard, which meant that it could
import more than would have been
justified by the goods it produced