Eighty years ago this week Keynes pleads inequality of sacrifice

 

Maynard Keynes had been sent to Washington to negotiate the future of economic relations between the US and the UK following  the President's abrupt termination of Lend-Lease aid. In military terms Britain had been able to hold on its status as one of the "Big Three" while the war lasted, but now had to face life in peace with an economy geared almost entirely to war production and its finances in ruins. Keynes's opening case was leaked to the press and showed how little negotiating power he held; his case rested on notions of equity only. In proportionate terms Britain had made a vastly greater sacrifice to defeat the Axis than the US; the impact on its economy was "considerable" whilst the US incurred a  "negligible". Perhaps worse, Britain could only claim to have passed very modest assistance through to other allies. During the First World War Britain had passed much US financial aid through to allies notably Russia but was left with no enforceable claim against them. In the aftermath of the Second Britain had no such financial loss to plead. Keynes was supported by his wife Lydia who entertained the ambassador Lord Halifax who was willing to be far more emollient towards the Americans than her husband.

The Japanese emperor Hirohito was adapting to his status as an ex-god remarkably quickly. He gave an interview to the New York Times and the United Press agency, unthinkable before the war which displayed an uncanny skill in adopting western political practices. He seemed to have read clearly that the US were happy to keep him in place and played his hand accordingly. He said he was open to an evolution in the country's political structure albeit towards some form of constitutional monarchy and the people should appreciate democracy, but government would not follow the exact pattern of the US or Britain. He unabashedly claimed that Japan would regain its "rightful place" in the community of nations though peaceful contributions to the advance of civilization. Hirohito claimed that he had not intended that his Imperial authority should be used to bring Japan into war, as it had been by General Tojo.

Elections to the regional councils in France showed a marked swing to the left. Both Socialists and Communists gained heavily. They had not campaigned on an explicitly anti-de Gaulle platform and no party had stood as his representative, but there was no mistaking the sign that  the general could no longer count of unanimous political support