Evening star., 1951-11-11
The Situation

The Situation
Rritain's basic problem Is eco
nomic. Economic problems, as they
arply to nations, are things OF
enormous complexity. They can be
dealt with, even by the experts, only
in boldly oversimplif1ed terms. The
bcld oversimplification OF Britain's
economic position, as every one
must know by now, is that the
British are not living within their
collective income. They are, as a
nation, producing less than they
consume-spending more on them
selves than they can afford.
The British are dependent on the
outside world for most of their food
supply. They live by importing raw
materials, which they turn into fin
ished articles. They must sell many
of these finished articles abroad for
enough profit to pay for the food
they need from abroad. That Is
the traditional pattern Of British
economic life.
This pattern, of course, was vio-
lently upset in World War II. After
the war, the British set out to re-
establish it. They set out, at the
same time, to establish in their land
q system of welfare socialism de-
signed to improve the lot of the
little man of Britain-raise his
standard of living-give him, in
other words, more comfort for less
work than he had known in the
prewar years.
Two Jobs at Once
This double effort-to effect re-
covery of Britain's war-battered
economy while carrying through an
expensive revolution in behalf Of
the laboring masses-was unques-
tlonably ambitious. Yet by the
spring of 1850, on the basis of very
substantial aid from the United
States, the British seemed to be on
the verge of realizing both aims.
Though still shaky, Britain's econ
omy was running in the black. At
the same time, the ordinary work
ing man undoubtedly found life
richer and happier than he had
ever known 1t.
For the nation as a whole, the
social development was not an un-
mixed blessing. The upper class
found itself struggling against stiff
odds to maintain way of life for
which the new system made no
allowance. The middle class found
its share of things agonizingly
squeezed between the demands of
those rising from below and those
falling from above. At all social
and economic levels, the more en-
terprising and ambitious indiyid-
uals might bemoan the fact that the
movement toward socialism put q
reduced premium on enterprise and
ambition. For all that, in that
spring a year and a half ago, post
war Britain bid fair to provide its
people with the solvency they
needed and with the state-backed
security most of them wanted.
And Then Reormoment
Then came Korea. Britain, along
with the rest of the free world, wa.
faced with the necessity of rapid re.
armament. Amid considerable de.
bate as, to whether so big :
program was feasible, Britain sci
out to spend more than $13 billior
on defense over a period of three
years. It was a plan geared to thu
arms-producing capacity of th'
British industrial plant, but the fac
was that Britain could not buy th'
raw material which must 60 int
this production and keep her inter
national trade books balanced.
Britishers who were in on tn
decision now say they expected tn
United States to come through wit!
additional economic aid toward tn
procuring of these raw material
for the defense program. Probabl
so. In any event, such direct ali
was not forthcoming. Britain never
theless stuck to the $13 billion de
Tense plan, the effects Of which onl
now are beginning to make them
selves really felt In her econom,
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