Yank Comes Home

Eric Johnston, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, came back last week from a three-week whirl around England with some startling conclusions on U.S.-British relations:

1) U.S. and British businessmen should get together on postwar problems right now, and he had so proposed to his British hosts. He had also suggested "a marrying" of the two nations' capital for investment in other nations. "The British have had investments all over the world for years," he continued blandly, "[but] some of them were not too profitable. It might help if U.S. capital were put in too."

2) Agreement between the two nations will be difficult because "we put the emphasis on opportunity; they put it on security." When a reporter asked if he was talking about social security, he said bluntly, "No. In business too. They're interested in cartels and other protective devices. They would like us to join in dividing up world markets, but I told them it wouldn't work. . . . They want only profit, whereas we have always thought of ours as a profit-&-loss system."

3) Though this "entirely different philosophy of life" even went so far that some Britons suggested to him that the two nations should merge their air-transport systems after the war (Johnston squashed them with "we want our airlines privately owned"), he still thought the U.S. and Britain should make their "similar economies" compatible before tackling any deals with Russia.

Mr. Johnston's bold talk in Britain (TIME, Aug. 30) drew British fire even before he got home. Early last week the London press broke out in a rash of protest. Snapped the irascible Mirror: "Will Mr. Johnston please note that no government ... in this country is going to allow anyone to come along and buy up Great Britain at the back door." Said a letter to the Times: "What progress can be expected if the United States pursues a high tariff policy . . . and sets out to use her huge production power to export without taking payment in goods and services?"

At week's end, Johnston's bold talk had still drawn almost no public comment, good or bad, at home. But a few shrewd observers had private comments to make on his views of the postwar world. They noted 1) that a good many U.S. businessmen, as well as the British, have up to now held a pretty high opinion of "cartels and other protective devices"; 2) that Russia might well throw her weight in that direction too.

If & when British industry responds to Eric Johnston's invitation to confer with U.S. businessmen, either or both of those factors might upset his competitive applecart.

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