The Big Knife

The British dollar crisis seriously affected Western Europe's hesitant start toward economic integration. In Paris the OEEC (Organization for European Economic Cooperation) sat down to divide up the Marshall Plan dollars for 1949-50. The estimates of irreducible need from each country totaled about $5 billion. Since the U.S. Congress was expected to provide only about $3.7 billion, a working party was set to paring down the estimates. When, with blood almost visibly dripping from the knife, the working party reported, there were cries of pain from Britain. Direly worried about the immediate future,Britain had upped her original estimate from $900 million to more than $1.5 billion. The economic surgeons proposed cutting her share back to $840 million.

Continental representatives felt and said that Britain was becoming apathetic to European solidarity; the British in turn accused the continental nations of having no understanding of Britain's special pangs and problems. Last week, another working party sat down to try for an operation less painful to Britain. Said one cynic: "Their only hope now is to find a solution that dissatisfies everybody. In that case, you can get agreement."