Word: britain
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...report, compiled over five years at a cost of ?200,000, contained some startling specific proposals which were probably less important than its broad analysis of population prospects. In its analysis, the report punches holes in two myths, one old, one new. The prewar myth was that Britain's birth rate would continue to decline, causing a drastic drop in Britain's population. The postwar myth was that Britain's tight balance of payments position required a drastic reduction of population by emigration ("With world supremacy gone, 40,000,000 people can't live on this...
...commission sees little chance of a sharp birthrate decline, believes that Britain's present 49 million population will drop only to 45½ million by 2050. The commission does not regard this prospect as calamitous. To the neo-Malthusians, who assert that the world population is outrunning its food supply, the commission report makes this answer: "The danger that a shortage of foodstuffs entering the world markets may continue indefinitely to the serious detriment of countries whose populations have outstripped their own agricultural resources cannot, we think, be rated higher than a possibility...
...report recognizes that while a sharp reduction in Britain's population would reduce its need for imports, Britain's ability to export would also be reduced. "It would be premature to assume that the balance of payments problem will necessarily constitute a serious argument against a moderate increase in numbers...
Except for Roman Catholic opposition on the detail of birth control information, the report was received last week with general acclaim in Britain. It has cleared the air of alarmist thinking, avoided absurd excesses of "population planning" (see cut) and made a start toward public policy on a problem that faces many nations-how to induce the more intelligent groups to have enough children to reproduce themselves...
John Jay McCloy, new U.S. high commissioner of Germany, had to reshape his plans for a leisurely trip to his new post. John Jr., 11, and Ellen, nearly 8, insisted on taking along the family pets (Hansel, a canary, Judy, a boxer, and Punchy, a beagle). But Britain's six-month rabies quarantine presented a problem. Diplomat McCloy decided to send the wife and kids and Hansel on to Britain by boat. To avoid the British quarantine, he would fly nonstop from the U.S. to Germany himself, personally escorting Punchy and Judy direct to their new home...