Eighty years ago this week the Bank of England emerges stronger from nationalisation

 

The British government published the bill to nationalise the Bank of England in line with its manifesto. The discussions between Hugh Dalton, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Bank Governor, Lord Catto had gone the Bank's way. The normally over-bearing and arrogant Etonian intellectual, raised in exalted Court circles, had been outmanoeuvred by the low profile Scot, who had worked his way up from being a clerk in a shipping office. Shareholders would be fully compensated and control of the Bank would remain with its Court of Directors. It was also given an explicit role in supervising the banking system but Catto evaded Dalton's attempt to force on the Bank the power to dictate to banks the assets they held.

 Serious fighting broke out in Indochina, now Vietnam, where the Viet-Minh independence movement under Ho Chi Min had established  an autonomous government. The Viet Minh tried to take control of Saigon airfield and the radio station. This had been been overthrown by French troops who had returned to what was still a colony. The Kuomintang government of China recognised French authority over the country.

The government brought in troops to replace striking dock workers to safeguard food supplies. Over 6,000 were deployed to ports around the country, concentrated on London and Liverpool. Many had been shipped back from Germany where they had fought in the final stages of the war against Hitler.