How It Happened

Britain's decision to devalue the pound came so fast that Western Europe's statesmen are still muttering angrily about not having been consulted. Last week London's respected Daily Telegraph told a detailed story of how the decision was reached.

Late in July, ailing Sir Stafford Cripps went to Switzerland for medical treatment. In a hilltop sanatorium near Zurich he embarked on the "ordered life" prescribed by his physician: that meant no dispatches from London.

With Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin also in Switzerland for a rest cure, Prime Minister Clement Attlee was left alone to face Britain's mounting economic crisis. By the beginning of August, world confidence in the pound had fallen dangerously. Attlee sent Board of Trade President Harold Wilson to Switzerland to consult with Bevin and Cripps. Attlee felt a decision could no longer be postponed. Cripps was still against devaluation.

But he cut his vacation short; on his return, Cripps drove straight from the airport to Attlee's country residence at Chequers. It was at this point that Cripps changed his slow-changing mind. Ten days after Attlee and Cripps decided to devalue, the British Cabinet approved the step.

According to the Telegraph account, the straw that broke the Chancellor's back was U.S. pressure. Washington officially denied this; but public and private advice from U.S. statesmen had clearly helped persuade Cripps that, after four years of the ordered economic life, Britain needed drastic new treatment.

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