British Gloom

After earlier signs of improvement, Britain's world trade position last week was taking a sharp turn for the worse. Only a year ago, Britain's trade showed a $641 million surplus, but in 1951 it was expected to go $850 million into the red.

The huge drain is due largely to higher prices of timber, tobacco and grain, much of which Britain must buy in the dollar area (the U.S., Canada, etc.). Another worry is the Iranian oil crisis. If Britain loses her oil from Abadan, she will have to spend some $350 million more a year buying oil from the dollar area (the U.S. and Venezuela) to make up the difference.

In the face of the new crisis, British politicians could offer nothing but the same old sterile remedies of switching purchases away from the dollar area and tightening the screws in domestic controls. Warned London's Economist: "Bluntly . . . solvency and security must be provided out of the mouths and off the backs of the British people." Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Gaitskell had another familiar remedy. He planned to ask the U.S. for more dollars to help Britain bear the burden of rearmament, and replace the Marshall Plan aid which was suspended last January.

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