Bevin's plug for an imperial customs union warmed at least one Tory heart. When Arch-Imperialist Lord Beaverbrook, publisher of the Daily Express, heard of Bevin's remarks, he chuckled: "By God, I think I'll go right down to Transport House [Trade Union headquarters] and join the union."
Only the day before, Beaverbrook had got some imperial yearnings off his own chest. For the U.S. Scripps-Howard papers he wrote a pungent evaluation of Britain's status. "The basic cause of our being in the present condition," he said, ". .. is the [U.S.] loan and the conditions under which it was accepted. It provided easy...