Britain's Labor government and British labor were heading for a showdown. For more than two years, the trade unions had grudgingly gone along with the government's policy of virtually freezing wages & prices. But when devaluation of the pound thawed out some prices and sent them climbing upwards, the unions' rank & file rebelled. Britain's T.U.C. (Trades Union Congress) presented new demands: higher wages, more government subsidies to keep food prices down, additional taxes to cut down business profits.
Last week, T.U.C. leaders faced their government's key men in Sir Stafford Cripps's study in the House of Commons. Beside Cripps at...