Britain Begins to Rebuild her Cities

During the past few months, many Americans have been preparing verbally to bury Great Britain and her Empire. They seem to consider this the prerogative, if not the duty, of relatives of one who has long fought off various economic and social ills and more recently has suffered a series of bad setbacks. Without doubt, Britain's economic position is serious. A vigorous, diversified, international trade is essential to maintaining or increasing her prewar standard of living. Before the war, she paid for roughly sixty per cent of her imports by tangible exports of goods and materials of various kinds. The other forty per cent was taken care of by returns on her foreign investments and by shipping, financial, insurance, and other services. The war and its aftermath have cut down alarmingly her foreign exchange from these latter sources and, at the same time, have added to her overseas expenditures to meet financial charges on her war borrowings, to maintain troops, and to meet her share of occupation and rehabilitation costs in other countries. In short, Britain can maintain the standard of living of most of her population only by increasing her exports substantially above prewar levels. As the sign-boards say: “To fill the shops, we must fill the ships.” And this must be done against the handicaps of war losses and damage, labor shortages, loss of many prewar markets, widespread fatigue, a limited diet, and last but not least, obsolete equipment in such basic industries as coal and textiles.