"It's nothing but a bloody schmozzle," growled a British union leader as he wiped his sweating neck and swigged a pint of beer. "A damnable piece of impertinence Cripps at his blasted governessing again," said an industrialist, sipping his Pimm's No. 1 on the terrace of Pall Mall's Royal Automobile Club. In London last week there was thunder from both left and right when Britain's economic boss, Sir Stafford Cripps, announced that he had asked for American advice on how to increase British production.
Britons sweated in record-breaking heat and a torment of national pride. The nation that had cradled...