The Price of European Recovery
When Sir Stafford Cripps, during his recent and highly successful American tour, said that E.R.P. was not merely a piece of machinery but an idea, many people in this country no doubt mistook his statement for oratory and forgot it. That was very rash, for this idea is costing a lot of money. Now that the recovery plan and
intra-European 'payments scheme for the year ending June 3oth, 1949,' have been published, there has been some tendency to brood on the cost to the United Kingdom in particular. It includes the largest single contribution by any European country to the payments scheme—$282 million—and the release of $209 million of sterling balances. The sacrifice looks even greater. when it is remembered that France, whose recovery effort does not seem impressive, is actually entitled under the payments scheme to draw the largest single amount—$323 million. But before brooding develops into complaint it will be as well to get the whole question into per- spective. Nobody is going to pay as much for this idea as the United States which, as is well known, provides $4,875 million in the first year alone. Nobody is going to get as large a share of American aid as the United Kingdom, whose allocation has been provisionally fixed at $1,263 million in the first year. And nobody has a right to complain until it can be determined whether or not the plan will succeed. There is certainly no good reason to think that it will fail. The programme for industrial and agricultural production in the current year aims at an impreSsive expansion in both fields, and the achievement of the past year, particularly in the production of machinery, promises well. The present organisation in Paris has not worked perfectly, but neither hai- it worked very badly, and the commission which has now been appointed to study this particular aspect should at least be able to effect some improve- ments. As to the broader aim of promoting closer co-operation in Western Europe, either it is worth some temporary sacrifice or Britain should not be associated with E.R.P. at all.
