William S. Honneus, advertising manager of TIME International, returned recently from an extensive business trip to Western Europe with a dossier full of firsthand observations of the European scene. The following excerpts from his personal account may serve to add another viewpoint to the excellent reports of the trained correspondents of the U.S. press abroad:
"It may seem trite to mention it after these years of austerity in Great Britain, but not until I read London's rationed four and six-page daily newspapers did I fully appreciate the great amount of information available to the U.S. public through the American press. In turn, one of the healthiest signs of Britain's recovery is the present criticism in Parliament and the press of the government policy of treating newsprint as a commodity without further significance to a democratic society. Under current newsprint allocations Britain's newspapers cannot provide adequate news services.
"It is almost impossible for the American traveler to prepare himself adequately for the changes in today's Europe or for austerity's effect on the splendid, self-disciplined people of Britain. In spite of the multitude of controls the British have to submit to every day now, the resilience of Britain's industry and workers, as I saw it in the plants I visited, is very impressive.
"Out on the flats of Dagenham, for instance, where the last of the river pirates were hanged on a gibbet a few centuries ago, Ford Motor Co., Ltd., of England has one of the biggest, busiest automobile plants in Europe—34 acres, 15,000 men under one roof. Furthermore, as of the time I was there the car and commercial vehicle sections of the British motor industry had already exceeded their export goals for 1948.
"I asked an Englishman when he expected to get his new car, however, and he said 'three years.' He may have to wait six years, and as a result the used car market in Britain (there is up to a 100% purchase tax on new cars) is flourishing. I saw a 1936 Packard on sale for $4,000, and a 1947 Studebaker should bring around $8,000.
"Elsewhere throughout Western Europe there are many signs of physical recovery evident even to the business tourist. The Netherlands is certainly on its way back, and a token of Dutch enterprise is the really remarkable new television set I saw at Philips of Eindhoven.
Belgium, which fought her inflation with rigorous, classic financial methods, has made a rapid recovery, and it was quite a pleasure to see the familiar Esso trademark on the bright-red new gasoline stations going up on the main roads.
"Another road, new to the American tourist, is the road through the town of Bastogne, along the Luxembourg border and south into France. Every kilometer for at least an hour's drive along this route stands a graceful stone marker, about four feet high, with crossed Belgian and American flags carved on it and the simple legend:
Freedom Road—a sincere and moving tribute to the American forces that liberated that area.