DON'T LIKE BEING TIED TO MONEYLENDERS

Chronicle (Levin), 28 July 1947, Page 5

DON'T LIKE BEING TIED TO MONEYLENDERS

ERNEST BEVIN TELLS WHT BRITAIN IS HARD UP. Received Sunday, 8.50 p.m. LONDON, July 27. Mr. Ernest Bevin, addressing the miners' annual gala at Durham, denied that "because the British were in difficulties they were incompetent. That impeachment usually came from people from overseas who stayed ahout a fortnight. "We are handicapped because we fonght the war from beginning to end without reservation, because we stood alone in 1940, and because the value of the American dollar loan is iiot what we thought it would be, " He recalled his statement that he didn't like to be tied to moneylenders. "I didn't mean United States or anyone else. I was uttering a very human expression. Nobody would like it. It upset Mr. Taft according to one report and provoked an international incident. (Laughter) . "The British don't like having to borrow. We don't mind earning it. We don't confuse borrowing with mvestment to enable us to get machines and ecpiipment to earn. If we have to borrow we like it to be as littie as possible. Therefore Britain and the countries of Europe were right in responding to Mr. Marshall's suggestion that we should first see what we could do for ourselves. Mr. Bevin added that others must not try to impose conditions which prevent Britain 's great Empire development plans.