THERE'LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND

...Or Peru or Chile...

...IF we won't turn over the money, say the British, with something less than their usual suavity, England will be forced to all sorts of restrictive tricks in order to compete with the U. S. for world trade...

...I say "give" because nobody, least of all any responsible Englishman, expects that such a "loan," interest or no interest, would ever be repaid...

...And it's still the same old England...

...Or India where millions have long starved so that England might live...

...Britain is no more interested in democratic government, outside the British Isles, than is Russia...

...The same old England— the most shrewdly selfish and most essential isolationist nation on earth...

...And sick-making too is Mr...

...Attlee's brotherhood-of-man government is just as disinterested in man outside Great Britain as was Mr...

...England cares only for the economic welfare of England...

...But it is said that we are a rich nation and that we can afford the billions Britain needs...

...You may remember that Churchill fought, fortunately in vain, to have the Anglo-American invasion of the Continent take the Balkan route—and his reasons were not primarily...

...And lest some simple soul suggest that Britain, though being mean to the Indonesians, is at least being altruistic and kind to the Dutch, let me explain...

...Gratitude has no more place in their scheme of things than altruism when the British are out for Britain...

...But England doesn't care, really, about the people of China or Peru or Chile or India—or the United States...

...Sure...

...Attlee's feeble bleat, in justification, that "not only are we under a strong moral obligation to our Dutch allies until they are in a position to resume control, but also to maintain law and order . . ." Law and Order...

...Granted Russia was stubborn and something less than idealistic...

...We see you...

...But •beyond that, in my opinion, we have no real conflict with Russia in that region, and it seems inconceivable that, left to our own devices, we would have broken up so important a meeting on the issue of Russian unilateral action in the Balkans—especially in the light of our own unilateralism in Japan...

...Sparked by the Anglophile Eastern press, the country has made a commonplace of laying all the blame for that failure on Russia and Russian intransigence...

...MY third bit of evidence is the most revealing of all...

...Which is always...

...Unselfish, no...

...England went to war to save England and England held the fort to save England...

...What do you suppose would happen in India and elsewhere where England carries the white man's lucrative burden under its own flag...

...But here in unblushing nakedness is Britain, defender of democracy, co-sponsor of the Atlantic Charter, apostle of the Four Freedoms...

...Churchill's outspokenly imperialistic regime: First, there is the smooth but brazen effort to get this nation to give Britain some fabulous sum in billions of dollars so Britain can get back on its economic feet...

...But isn't it barely possible that Britain was equally stubborn and equally ungodly—and that Britain brought about a deadlock in which the only winner was the weakest sister of the three ? For the interest of the U. S. in the nations of Southeastern Europe is at best remote and rather intangible...

...A little sick-making, isn't it...

...Herewith, three recent bits of evidence to indicate that Mr...

...Altruistic, no...

...British troops, at the orders of Britain's brave new brotherhood regime, are being rushed to Java to shoot down a native revolution, dedicated to self-government, and thus save the wealth of the Indies for the crown of the Netherlands...

...Edgar Bergen Churchill...

...I wonder...

...What the British troops are doing in Java is protecting British wealth...

...Look at Greece, look at Italy, look at Egypt, look at India, look back to British-sponsored "non-intervention" that brought fascism to Spain...

...Brave, yes...

...And by "isolationist" I mean single-mindedly dedicated in its foreign policies, at war or at peace, to the welfare of the people of the British Isles at any cost—including the cost of the welfare of other peoples all around the globe...

...Yes, it's the same old England, arrogantly begging the U. S. for billions that might far better go to build up the really destitute areas of the world...

...MY second bit of evidence of Britain's continuing unconcern for the rest of the world relates to the recent flop of the meeting of foreign ministers in London...

...Why not...

...But more than that, suppose the revolution should succeed and th* East Indians should gain their independence...

...Shrewd, yes...

...sabotaging a vital international conference, in its own selfish national interest but in the name of world democracy...

...But does anyone seriously suppose that if we do turn over the money at the point of England's economic gun, the British wouldn't still use every trick in the book to beat us out of world markets ? If so, let him look at the British record in South America before and during the war, when the British were literally living on Lend-Lease funds and yet were using some of those funds to help build a Buy British background for postwar trade...

...We would be giving part of our incomes to the British people in pure charity as we might give to the Community Chest—by a sort of mass Bundle for Britain...

...British investments in that holding company are enormous, probably greater than the investments of Dutch nationals...

...In the first place, the crown of the Netherlands is in reality a giant holding company, perhaps the greatest in the world...

...In fact, I doubt that in the whole history of Great Britain there has ever been a foreign policy, large or small, commercial, diplomatic, or military, which was so much as tinged with international altruism...

...military...

...Come on, Mr...

...murdering for the sake of English wealth, human beings who want only to run their own land and use for themselves its resources...

...England wants the money for her own...

...And the most shocking...

...Et tu, Attlee...

...And so it hornswoggles the U. S. into backing British imperialism against Russian Communism—in the name of democracy...

...The answer—or so it occurs to me and would never occur to the British—is simply that if we are going to start giving money away to other nations out of the kindness of our hearts, there are many nations that need that money far more desperately than does England...

...And who would be paying those billions ? You and you and you and you and I—in taxes...

...As usual...

...China, for instance...

...Let him talk to any American who had to deal with the British on a financial or economic plane in the Near East during the past few years...

...What indeed...

...Before I go further, don't tell me about England unselfishly going to war to save poor little Poland or about England unselfishly holding the fort for democracy during the dark days of the blitz...

...Still, we are a charitable people...

...he will hear of nationally selfish skulduggery to make his hair stand on end—and again with U. S. funds and goods...

...Britain, however, has very tangible economic interests in Southeastern Europe, ranging from investments to coveted resources to protection of the Empire life-line, and those interests clash head-on with' Russian interests of a similar nature...

...And by the way, if these uncivilized upstarts should get too tough, I wouldn't be surprised to see the third atomic bomb used to teach them their place...

...We would like in a wishful way to see democratic governments established there, just as we would like to see democracy in every patch of earth on the globe...

...The good old gods of every oppressive ruler from George HI, who after all only wanted to maintain Law and Order in the 13 rambunctious colonies, to Hitler...

...Come out from behind Charley McCarthy Attlee...