Evening star., 1949-09-04

questions asked. Inc CranSIuSloIlS
certainly helped Britain greatly
although not permanently; while
the exercise proved too strenuous
and had to be abandoned.
The crisis which brings Britain's
top officials to Washington to con-
fer with our Government is not
readily apparent to the man in the
street, not even in London. You
can't see many signs OF it in the
shop windows of oxford Circus or
Piccadilly as yet. Recently
Canadian financial official visiting
London asked his cab driver what
he thought of the crisis. Crisis?
the old fellow replied; If this is
a crisis, may it never end what
he meant was that he had never
felt any better off than now. The
war and the Labor government
have brought to Britain's lower
paid workers, along with ratlonlng
and price control, more and better
food and greater security than
they could count on previously
even though for the nation as a
whole "austerity" is the motto.
Industrial Problem
While the United States billions
have been financing the British
government in the balancing OF
its international operations, inter-
nally the cradle-to-grave security
and all that are accompanied oy
income taxes much higher than
our own. The British worker, being
assured of the necessary food and
clothes, has no great inducement
to increase his taxable pay en-
velope. In some ways, very impor-
tant to Britain's present mabrlty
to pay its way abroad, the worker
is a very conservative fellow IN
deed. He wants to keep on doing
his Job in the accustomed way and
i'm the accustomed place. There
fore, he has a strong antipathy TO
modern labor-saving machinery,
which would reduce costs OF pro-
duction and so enable Britain to
compete for more foreign markets.
including the American market.
And he strenuously objects to
moving from one part of the coun-
try to another, insisting instead
that the work be brought to him
If not, the government will take
care of him. =,
Because of the workers attitude
and for other reasons, Britain's
industrial plant and productivity
per worker lag far behind this
country's. Since Britain was the
leader in the industrial revolution
of the last century. it is natural
to find many of its factories obso-
lete and antiquated. Costs of pro-
duction are so far out of line as to
impede not only the country's sales
in competitive markets abroad, but
even domestic trade. Before the
war the average British wage
Garner had to work five days for
enough money. after taxes, to pay
for the cheapest mans suit. Now
he must work seven days. Simi-
larly, the standard workman's
house took 112 weeks of work be-
fore the war and takes 213 weeks
now. The Economist editorially
asks: IF the British people cam
not afford to buy their own goods,
how can they expect foreigners to
do SOP"
Production Up
The British have been striving,
much more so than some other
ERP countries, to overcome the
drag of high production costs and
a pound sterling which the au-
thorities stubbornly have pegged
at $4.03 for international trade
purposes, when its home purchas-
ing power is far less. British in
dustry is now turning out goods at
a rate SO per cent above prewar
But an insufficient part of the pro-
duct is finding a market IN the
worlds dollar areas, where Britain
obtains so much Of the import
goods that cannot be bought else
where. What the British desire
from here, Canada and neighbor-
ing hard currency" countries far
exceeds what they can pay for
with British goods and services
sold in these same countries, even
it now appears-after the So
750, 900, 900 loan which the Con-
gress granted in 1916 and the more
generous help which the ECA is
giving to Britain and many Of its
trading partners. Both the loan
and ERP have failed to put Britain
and the rest of the world back on
the road to the cherished Ameri-
can goal of "multilateral trade
open competition among business
men of all countries in any
market, without discrimination.
This has been a persistent fea-
ture of American negotiations for
many years. At our insistence, 1t
has been written into long list
of international agreements as an
ultimate objective. The United
Kingdom, however reluctantly and
with whatever misgivings, signed
its promise of ultimate non-dis-
elimination in trade when 1t be-
came a party to the Atlantic Cahr-
ter, the Breton Woods agree
ments, the Anglo-American loan
agreement and the ERP. The as
yet unratified ITO charter con-
tains the same promise. In the
loan agreement. article 9 gives
solemn assurance that If the
United Kingdom imposes "quanti-
tative import restrictions" for any
particular import commodities, the
restrictions will be so administered
as not to put American exporters
| at a disadvantage as compared
with other countries exporters.
Needs Argentine Help
It is quite clear that the above
provision can no more be observed
by the British than the loan
= ecre>unnn$,s ofhA,. iiks,nrta nt ron-