The British Imperial Establishment, Post Imperial Era, and the ‘Churchillian’ World View, 1945-2016. (Adjustments & Challenges in Contemporary British Diplomatic Strategy)

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Labour
had gained a total of 393 seats and 48.0 per cent of the poll, compared to
154 seats and 38.1 per cent in
1935.”17 On the whole, taking the National
Coalition and the
Liberals into account, the swing to Labour was 11.8%, and
Labour was left with an overall majority of
147.

In
1945 the Labour Government, led by Clement Attlee, inherited a huge
and complex Empire. It appeared that
the British Empire had yet again emerged
intact from a fundamental challenge, but in real terms this was
not the case. The
global war’s impact on Britain was a massive debt, mainly to the United
States.
Additionally, estimates have shown that 10% of Britain’s pre-war wealth or no
less than
one-quarter if disinvestments were also included, had been lost. Most
importantly, Britain was able to
pay for only a fraction of the imports she needed
both for current survival and for the reconstruction of
her economic well-being.
“Through lend-lease and her ability to run up enormous debts to members of
the
sterling area it had been possible during the war to divert a large proportion of
her former
export industries to war production, so that at the end of 1944 her
exports stood at only about one-third
of their pre-war volume.”18

As
for import needs, they remained the same as in 1938, in addition to the
fact that terms of trade had also
moved against Britain; “invisible earnings had
fallen through the loss of one-quarter of the
merchant-marine, and liquidation of
over £1 billion in 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.”19

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 expected that in order to
achieve long-term
solvency the volume of British export 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

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