LABOUR AND BRETTON WOODS" SIR, —The outcome of the general election
has left with the Labour Party the responsibility of deciding whether this country shall or shall not ratify the Bretton Woods Agreement—an issue associated directly with our national determination to pursue an internal full employment policy. I do not envy Dr. Hugh Dalton his task, but clearly, if past Labour pro- nouncements are to be honoured, he must throw out the "Final Act."
The Labour Party pamphlet Full" Employment and Financial Policy, which was endorsed by the 1944 conference, states roundly that "there must be no return to the gold standard," and adds, sensibly as I think, "it cannot be in our own interests, or in anyone else's, to join in a policy of collective suicide."
Mr. Ernest Bevin, in the debate on the Finance (No. 2) Bill shortly before the dissolution, was even more emphatic. He declared: "I take the line, and .my.Party takes the line, that neither directly nor indirectly will we again be anchored to gold in any circumstances."
• If words mean anything, how can Mr. Dalton commit us to a project which, almost at once, would involve fixing a new gold parity for the pound sterling, spelling gradual disintegration of the prosperous sterling bloc, whilst providing absolutely no guarantee whatever that we could insulate domestic from external economy—the cornerstone, as I see it, of any full employment policy?—Yours, &c., 33 Crooked Usage, N.3. ANTHONY PHILIP KIELY.
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