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,...