Word: labouring
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...thirteen years in opposition the Labour Party had condemned the Conservative Government's policies of intervention and over-extension, focusing on the Suez crisis in 1956. Labour members criticized American meddling in South Vietnam and were generally committed to a financial reform policy of "Britain First." Once in power, however, Prime Minister Wilson adopted a more traditional approach to defense problems. He resolved to support the Unted State's position in Vietnam, and continued the fight to keep British bases in Aden and Singapore...
...Britain could no longer ignore the economic pressures at home which demanded a restriction of military committments. The newly-elected Labour Government initiated the extensive defense review to establish more economically pragmatic policies. According to the new program, the British plan to evacuate their troublesome base in Aden by 1968. Forces in the Persian Gulf area and the heavy commitment in Germany will be maintained only if the troubling deficit balance of payments is abolished. In Europe and the Middle East, then, Britain's policy is to withdraw...
...Labour Government has not, however, assumed the Gaullist posture of withdrawal. When France relinquished her colonies, she effectively abandoned all overseas military commitments. Moreover De Gaulle has now decided to withdraw France's troops from the NATO alliance. Britain, on the other hand, will seek to maintain her traditional presence east of Suez, though limiting the scope of her military potential...
Public interest has focused on the Labour Government's proposals since the dramatic resignations of the Minister of the Navy and the First Sea Lord, in protest against the White Paper. Both men ostensibly opposed the purchase of fifty American F-111 swing-wing aircraft in lieu of building an aircraft carrier costing seventy million pounds. But objections to the defense policy run much deeper than the Royal Navy's rivalry with the Air Force...
Such dependence on the United States is Britain's nemesis. Even the Labour Government is reluctant to admit that the old "tunes of glory" are now faint, and so the White Paper re-affirms a traditional Eastern influence. But as Mayhew, pointed out, the new defense program might be too ambitious for Britain to finance. Both the Labour and Conservative Parties are divided by factions favoring total withdrawal, or else a reincarnation of British supremacy--in either case a position independent of America. Leaders Wilson and Heath will find it difficult to reconcile these sentiments and to formulate precise campaign...