Visiting Traders

Two of Winston Churchill's top lieutenants sailed for the U.S. last week for "exploratory talks" with the new Eisenhower Administration. They are Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and Chancellor of the Exchequer Richard ("Rab") Butler. Butler brought welcome, if qualified, news of British recovery. The sterling area has transformed a 1951 deficit of -L-700 million into a surplus of -L-150 million. Britain is paying back postwar U.S. loans at the rate of $378,000 a day.

Sterling, says Butler, has gained a "breathing space"--but only a breathing space. In Washington, he and Eden hope to enlist U.S. help for a long-range Commonwealth plan to 1) make the pound freely convertible into dollars, kroner and yen; 2) multiply the free world's trade; 3) attract dollar investments to the Commonwealth and Empire. To make their plan work, the British hope to persuade the U.S. to lower its trade barriers and to provide some kind of dollar backing for the pound. The Administration promised to listen carefully.

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