Word: britain
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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According to the Telegraph account, the straw that broke the Chancellor's back was U.S. pressure. Washington officially denied this; but public and private advice from U.S. statesmen had clearly helped persuade Cripps that, after four years of the ordered economic life, Britain needed drastic new treatment...
...loudest cries of pain were heard in Britain itself. The government last week raised the price of nonferrous metals and of such humble objects as pots & pans. The first predictions of a 5% cost-of-liv-ing rise shot up to 10%. The trade unions were having Sir Stafford Cripps on the carpet, demanding wage boosts. The Tories charged that devaluation could have been avoided but for the Socialist government's mismanagement; Laborites replied that it was not so, asserted that they had devalued rather than cut Britain's welfare program and permit unemployment. Said one Labor leader...
...Britain's decision to devalue the pound came so fast that Western Europe's statesmen are still muttering angrily about not having been consulted. Last week London's respected Daily Telegraph told a detailed story of how the decision was reached...
With Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin also in Switzerland for a rest cure, Prime Minister Clement Attlee was left alone to face Britain's mounting economic crisis. By the beginning of August, world confidence in the pound had fallen dangerously. Attlee sent Board of Trade President Harold Wilson to Switzerland to consult with Bevin and Cripps. Attlee felt a decision could no longer be postponed. Cripps was still against devaluation...
...Cabinet. A guard of honor of ten U.S., ten British, ten French soldiers snapped to attention for the Germans. Waiting in a drawing room were the high commissioners: the U.S.'s cagey, hard-driving John J. McCloy, France's scholarly, elegant André Francois-Poncet, Britain's shy, gruff General Sir Brian Robertson. Facing the commissioners across a red carpet, Adenauer announced formally that he had formed his government. In a brief speech he paid tribute to the Allies' help to Germany, expressed the hope that Germany would soon get greater autonomy...