Great Britain: Ready for Emergency

New British Fords backed up on the Thames docks, steel symbols of the tens of millions in pounds sterling being lost each week that exports were halted. The price of sirloin in London's working-class neighborhoods was up from 98¢ to $1.05 per Ib. — a sign of the slow but steady pinch on imports. And Harold Wilson's Labor government, moving deliberately but diplomatically, took two steps to cope with — but hardly end — the merchant seamen's strike that, in its second week, was slowly strangling Britain's vital commerce with the outside world.

First, at Wilson's behest, Queen Elizabeth...

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