British Diplomatic Oil Crisis: Contemporary Anglo-Saxon Geopolitical Rivalries in the Persian Gulf: Drawing a Lesson? Or Sir Anthony Eden‘s Delusion of Grandeur.

foreign investments.
Britain’s external liabilities were nearing

£3.5
billion by the middle of 1945 – a seven-fold increase – yet
her reserves totalled less than £500 million.48

According to the calculations over the next three years, before
Britain could pay its way internationally, further debts of at least
another £1.25 billion would be incurred. Furthermore, given the
many changes in the country’s economic predicament,

It was excepted that in
order to achieve long-term solvency the
volume of British exports would have to be at least 50 per cent
higher than before the War. This figure was later revised to 75 per
cent. Yet, in June 1945, no less than 45 per cent of the nation’s
employable manpower was still directly or indirectly devoted to the
war effort. Conversion to the needs of peace had barely begun.49

As a result
‘the material fruit of victory were not much in
evidence.’ 50 If not among the public,
defence, foreign and colonial policy received considerable attention
in the Labour Party. This was as a result of the emergence of two
new superpowers, the United States, with its possession of atomic
weapons, and the Soviet Union, which would clearly have such weapons
soon. Although the economic pressures on the Labour Government were
a principal cause of its post-war foreign policies, ideological
factors played a leading role in influencing Labour leaders in
formulating their policies. Therefore, it is essential

to bring the Labour Party’s
colonial doctrine to attention.