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Page 185 preferential measures which may form part of the final plan. Such preferences would tend to ensure that, in so far as dollars were available, they would be spent in Canada rather than the United States. Nor can Canadians overlook the problem, at present somewhat obscured by business conditions in Canada and United States, of how and where their farmers will be able to sell their products. Who will buy Canadian wheat or cheese in a period of American recession and a decline of the non-dollar world? As the Sterling Area policy takes effect and a return to con- vertibility becomes possible, something like our pre-war trade relationship with Canada may well be restored.
X.-Conclusion
I ask that these proposals should be examined and decisions taken. For, great as are the difficulties involved in this approach to the problems which confront us, I feel that they are far outweighed by the dangers of inaction or drift. It is now clear that none of the political objectives at which we aim can be achieved without a radical change of policy. Conservatism, associated with deepening austerity at home and declining influence abroad, will drift to inevitable disaster. From time to time in our party history we have needed the stimulus of new ideas and ideals. It is these which have sustained us through temporary set- backs. We are faced at home with a steady intensification of class divisions and that sense of frustation which leads to the rejection of all established institutions; we may have to face at the same time the break-up of the Commonwealth and our decline into a second-rate Power. I see no escape from these dangers except by the fearless proclamation of a policy which will reinspire the masses and restore their pride and confidence.
This is the choice the slide into a shoddy and slushy Socialism, or the march to the third British Empire.
Ministry of Housing and Local Government,
S.W.1.
17th June, 1952.
į
H. M.
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(THIC Baga186 of 200THE PROPERTY OF HER BRITANNPage 186 of 200
GOVERNMENT).
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CONFIDENTIAL
C. (52) 197
CARINET OFFICE RECORD COPY
COFY NO.
71
17th JUNE, 1952.
CABINET
SCALE CF THE CORONATION CELEBRATIONS,
Memorandum by the Secretary of State for
Commonwealth Relations
At their meeting on 16th April (C.^.(52) 43rd Conclusions, Minute 6) the Cabinet appointed a Committee under my chairmanship to consider and report to them what guidance should be given on the scale of the arrangements to be made for celebrating Her Majesty's Coronation.
2.
As a basis for considering and reporting on this matter the Committee obtained from the Ministers and other authorities concerned statements of the expenditure they had incurred in connection with the Coronation of King George VI in 1937 and provisional estimates of the expenditure they would be likely to incur in 1953 on the assumption that the celebration of Her Majesty's Coronation would be on broadly the same scale. These statements and estimates, some of which have been reduced in response to suggestions by the Committee, are reproduced in the Annex to this report. It cannot be too strongly emphasised that the estimates, prepared in haste and at so early a stage, are of an extremely tentative nature and subject to possibly substantial margins of error.
3.
It will be seen that the present estimate of the total gross cost of Coronation celebrations in 1953 on the 1937 scale is approximately £1 millions, compared with actual gross expenditure of rather under £1 million in 1937. This estimate, however, excludes certain substantial items covered by the figure for 1937 expenditure, namely:-
Service Uniforms
Service Reviews
Expenditure by the Assistance Board.
Our comments on these three items follow. It will be convenient to state here, however, that if the proposal to issue blue No. 1 dress to all Army troops taking part in the Coronation parade were approved and it were also decided that reviews of all three Fighting Services should be held, the total gross cost of the celebration would be increased to some £2 millions.
Service Uniforms
4.
The main question for decision is whether the general body of Army troops taking part in the procession to and from the Abbey and lining the routes shall wear blue No. 1 uniform. At present, apart from Guards who have full dress, their only uniform is battle dress, which the Army Council consider would be inappropriate on the occasion of the Coronation,
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.