Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada
Dear Father:
Your Loving Daughter,
Ronnie
The Economist, 1 May 1954
Leaders
"Taxing Personal Incomes" The Economist reads the report of the Royal Commission on the income tax for us at pretty considerable length considering that it calls for standing pat, but you do have to prepare the ground if you want to argue in the last paragraph that the typical Economist reader should get a tax break. Follows two pages on the prospects of the Liberal Party, because you have to talk about that in Britain if you write about politics.
"Atomic Politics" More atomic tests are coming, not because there is still some Eniwetok showing above water, but because we need better hydrogen bombs, and the British are having a fight over how and why Attlee "gave up" Britain's veto over the use of the atom bomb. There seems to be some need for a new agreement between the Americans and the British, but even The Economist can see that there is no chance of a new British veto on American atomic use.
Notes of the Week
"Gloves off at Geneva" The Chinese foreign minister made an annoying speech, all about what China wants. The nerve! Also, the North Korean position clearly implies that the Reds would also take over Germany if given their way in Korea, because the situations are practically the same. Also, Nehru is a great big nincompoop for not wanting to send Indian troops to Indo China, because everything is just like Spain, and look how that turned out. I'm feeling as though "How Spain turned out" changes by the paragraph around here.
to reduce oil pollution, but foreigners will probably ignore it and so the beaches are doomed.
Letters
Stephen King-Hall points out some of the less obvious drawbacks of a close, Nato-like alliance in Asia. It's not just a matter of Britain being dragged into a war with Communist China; It is Dulles not being able to say, "I'd love to, but the Brits won't come in!" Arthur Schlesinger points out that Senator Saltonstall is pro-McCarthy, not anti-, as he pretends to be in recent comments in the press. Pat Sloan of the British Soviet Friendship Society goes to bat for Lysenko, who is clearly on the way out in Russia. "Local Government Official" denies that the government of Ulster is anti-Roman Catholic, citing various things that Belfast has done for Catholics, like paying for schools. D. G. McDonald of the Chessborough Manufacturing Company points out that Vaseline is a brand name, and stop using it to refer to petroleum jelly. Also, if I'm not mistaken, The Economist makes a dirty joke. ("Romance by the jar.") D. H. MacKenzie reminds everyone to check for hidden charges when dealing with travel agents.
American Survey
"McCarthy Versus the Army" a page-and-a-half boils down to McCarthy's Gallup rating falling from 50% to 38%. So much for McCarthy, and let's forget about whatever these hearings might be about.
The World Overseas
"Secrets of the Soviet Budget" Estimated revenue of 572 billion rubles, and expenditure of 562 billion leaves a very narrow surplus reflecting budgetary pressure, but it is not clear where. Defence spending as a proportion of the budget continues to fall, with an absolute cut of 10 billion rubles cutting the defence share to 15% of the budget or so, but atomic expenditures may be hidden under other headings. About a third of spending is undisclosed, but grants to industry and social services are little changed.
"India and the Foreign Settlements" India wants to annex Goa and Pondicherry, both of which lose money for their colonial masters, never mind the smaller enclaves, which are hardly viable at any level, but that doesn't mean that they will go quietly, and Salazar seems more interested in goading Indian communists than negotiating. A $100 million loan to the ECSC gives the European Community some dollars to work with. Kuwait is a nice place, won't Iraq please leave it alone. The standoff in Lima over Haya de la Torre's sanctuary in the Colombian embassy is over, with Senor Haya allowed to leave for Mexico and giving President Odria a chance to reform Peru's economy along lines more appealing to British investors. A "journal" of the first two days at Geneva catches us up a bit more, and Chou En-lai is on a tour of Germany.
Spring Books
Volume 6 of Churchill's The Second World War gets the lead, very long, somewhat skeptical review focusing on doubts about whether the Prie Minister could really have saved eastern Europe with American backing. James Wechsler's The Age of Suspicion is his explanation that he cooperated with HUAC in order to save truth, liberty, and the left. Herbert Morison's Government and Parliament: A Survey From the Inside, explains why Herbert Morison should be the next prime minister. H. C. Jackson's Sudan Days and Ways is about how British administrators were the best thing to ever happen to Sudan. Compton McKenzie's Echoes is a compilation of the radio presenters' best stories about long ago days before the war. Bernard Darwin's Golf gets a column and a half because you just can't talk about golf enough. Dorothy Hartley's Food in Britain is about making food and eating it, thank God, not about why it doesn't cost enough and shouldn't cost more. A bit more of Hartley and a bit less of "Oh no, subsidies" and maybe we wouldn't all dread the "lamb" and brussel sprouts! Noel Coward's Future Indefinite is about what Noel did during the war, no names except Rebecca West, the one he didn't sleep with. (I assume.) John Middleton Murry's Jonathan Swift tries to unravel the "riddle of Swift," which is actually quite a good riddle, if you care, and I know you don't. Julian Huxley's From an Antique Land: Ancient and Modern in the Middle East is paired with Stuart Perowne's The One Remains: A Report from Jerusalem to make for a good compare-and-contrast look at the colourful Middle East of antiquities and Huxleyan insights and the present situation in Jerusalem, which is about living people (mostly refugees expelled from Israel and living in "lice-ridden caves") and not roseate ancient ruins at all.
Deborah Kerr, dressed by Martin Amies in The Grass is Greener (1960) |
The Business World
Business Notes
Girl is swole! |
"C" license: The Scammel Crusader |
Leaders
"Out of this Nettle . . ." The crash of a fourth Comet is bad but it's probably not that bad. Also, hats! Okay, to be fair Flight is introducing a general history of 603 Squadron later in the issue, but it is its choice to summarise all the "hats" information about honorary commanders and cap badges and such.
Flight takes a ride in a Provost (and later the Beaver).
Here and There reports that four Vampires are being sent to Kenya as reinforcements. New RAF equipment on show includes a smaller, flat-pack parachute, and 2682 aircrew have been trained in Canada under the Nato programme.
"Airfield Visibility Assessment: American Experiments with Automatic Observation Equipment" We get a summary of the American Weather Bureau's experiments with "transmissometers" and "ceilometers" at Washington National Airport, which have been going on since 1951, and which are intended to give accurate visibility numbers to guide pilots on incoming flights. The principles for calculating ceiling height automatically are laid out briefly.
"Ranger of the Northlands: The Avro Canada CF-100" A pictorial with a blurb, I mention it because it has a discussion of how the plane's nose-mounted air-to-air rocket armament works.
"Airline Engineering: Precis of a Presentation to the Chester Branch by R. C. Morgan, Chief Project and Development Engineer of BEA on 'Practical Experience of Airline Engineering" Which, in spite of the long title and the three pages of text and two pages of discussion, doesn't have much to say. Airlines should hire engineers for new equipment testing and troubleshooting and service development! As on review this isn't boring enough, Flight is off to the Physical Society Exhibition to look at the new aircraft instruments at the Kelvin and Hughes booth. Ooh! Ah! (One can reduce the friction in ball races by rotating two in the opposite direction to almost cancel out the frictional torque.)
"Seconds for mince pie!" |
"Fokker's Twin-Dart Friendship" The Fokker F. 27 Friendship is a light transport with overhead wings. The article goes into a bit more detail, from which it sounds as though Fokker has a winner on its hands. For a look at the other half, Sir Miles Thomas assures shareholders that the Hermes transports the corporation is flogging off on anyone who wants them will only be used for services that BOAC doesn't want to undertake. Recent objections by BOAC staff who are opposed to the sale and to changes in Government trooping policy, are nonsense, and there will be no strike, as threatened by ground crew.
The Industry reports that aircraft manufacturing plants use a lot of gas, and that Rolls Royce's turbine engine testhouse has now been silenced.
Correspondence
Hamish MacLaren and J. C. Brooke share anecdotes and facts from the old days, before the war. J. C. Neilan has opinions about the sources of turbulence, G. L. Miller sticks up for draughtsmen, and "Pedantica" is sure that if they try building a wooden single-control aircraft design it will definitely work this time and bring aviation to the masses and not be a pointless exercise in reckless homicide like all the other times.
The Economist, 8 May 1954
Leaders
"Alliance in Danger" The British appear to have noticed that Dulles is an idiot (fortunately an idiot who has flown off to Italy to stir up trouble over Trieste because he is upset about developments at Geneva) and that the Administration is incompetent, and to the extent that the British public notices, it's bad news because they'll all vote for Bevan.
"Towards Longer Schooldays" A survey of the situation concludes that Britain won't be able to raise the "school leaving age" from fifteen to sixteen until about 1965, because in spite of improvements in teacher recruiting mainly due to better accommodation of married women, the overall population expansion has severely delayed implementation of the 1948 Education Act.
"Auguries from Bonn" The month is likely to see the fall of Dien Bien Phu, of the Laniel government, and the isolation of Bideault at Geneva. And it might see the Assembly "killing outright the policy of European integration" by rejecting the EDC. Which is why Adenauer's speech to the Bundestag is so important, because he said that European integration is good, so that's good. Now off to survey the landscape of German politics and find that everything is awful! Also, Britain should spend more money on information services abroad and it is appalling that more people in the government don't recognise that.Notes of the Week
"M. Bidault in No Man's Land" Here's what French politics looked like before Dien Bien Phu fell! It did not look good then, but it's probably fine now, because Mendes-France can actually run the country, unlike Daniel Laniel, who can't put off a non-confidence motion forever, even with Gaullist support. Mendes-France probably won't last, because he has his eyes on North Africa, too, but give him a few months and he'll do some good, and maybe tell somebody off about this "fight to the clast Frenchman" hogwash. Tje British, meanwhile, seem stuck on the idea of the "free nations of southern Asia" guaranteeing the settlement in Indo China, whatever it looks like. (Partition, as in Korea, seems improbabl because there is not a clear geographical divide between Bao Dai's state and the Viet Minh.) Back in Britain, Labour is falling apart, too, and The Economist thinks that the Television Bill isn't being debated adequately.
The Istanbul Greek pogrom, 1955 |
From The Economist of 1854 comes the breathless revelation that unions are bad because they are really about demanding power in the workplace, and there are masters, and men.
Letters
Desmond Banks of the Radical Reform Group has opinions about the revival of the Liberal Party. The Portuguese Embassy is upset at the allegation that fascist Portugal is running Goa like fascists. James Stewart of the Coal Merchants' Federation has opinions about pricing mechanically mined coal, which produces fewer of the arge coals prefered by domestic users and railways. W. J. Gleeson of London takes on "Local Government Official's" "deliberate misrepresentation" of the amount of anti-Catholic discrimination in Northern Ireland.
Books
G. Rattray Taylor, author of Sex in History (1954), which sounds like every cliche about the subject all between two covers. |
American Survey
"President and Press" The President's latest solution to the McCarthy problem, which is to commplain about how the "New Deal columnists" and "bleeding-heart left wingers" of the Washington press corps created McCarthy, and they should just stop, gets an unfavourable review, which goes on to point out that it was the Administration that accused President Truman of condoning treason and which first used confidential FBI files for character assassination. And it matters because the road to peace in Indo China runs into a giant roadblock in Washington in the form of many Washingtonians' will to go to war with China, never mind the Viet Minh. I mean, it's one thing to support that nonsense from the opposition, but once you're in power, this whole "Stop holding me back, Anthony!" act gets pretty old. If Anthony holds Ike back so fiercely that he can't go to war with China, it might be that the alliance is broken to save America from Knowland's war.
There's lots of things to dislike about Henry Luce, but not his willingness to run a spread because it's pretty, and who cares if it doesn't make sense |
"Too Easy Money?" The new Treasury issue might be at too low rate, but it is not enough to cause inflation unless the country suddenly finds itself at war again. Hint HINT. Speaking of which, Exercises FLASH BURN and TIC TAC 54-7 (and the failure of the Korean talks, and the threat of another brushfire war) seem to show that the Army cuts under the New Look might have been premature. Like everybody else, The Economist notices that McCarthy's ratings are down and that there is no way that free trade America is going to embrace free trade. It also reports on the upcoming decision on the Communist Party's First Amendment-based appeal of the Internal Security Act.
"Hawaii's Expanding Economy" Visitors are surprised to find something on Hawaii besides coconut trees and sandy beaches. Actually, it has a half-million people "of diverse racial backgrounds" and a rapidly expanding billion dollar economy. There is one car for every three people and a television for every ten. Eighty-four percent of the population are American citizens. Sugar, followed by the navy, are the biggest contributors, although tourism was worth $43 million last year. This introduction to Hawaii brought to you by the "Why the Heck Isn't It a State Oh, No, I Said 'Racially Diverse' Out Loud" Department.The World Overseas
"Uganda Turns a Page" Now that Owen Falls is open, can an indutrial revolution in Uganda be far behind? Maybe. Unless politics gets in the way, follows an explanation of the tribal makeup of the colony. Speaking of which, it is off to Indo China to survey its resources: Rice, also rubber, mainly in the south. Though there may be some ore bodies in the Tongking hills, notably coal, but also lead, zinc, tin, antimony, manganese, wolfram, gold and iron.
"Notes from Australia" The election is less than a month away, and the coalition only needs to lose eight seats to hand victory to Labour, which is growing less likely due to the healthy economy and the Petrov affair, which has revealed a widespread Communist spy ring in Australia. Arrests will surely keep the matter front and centre through the election and reinforce Prime Minister Menzies' call to outlaw the Communist Party. Dr. Evatt (of Labour) has been making the case that it is all just propaganda, but has not made a good impression. Trade with Japan is also likely to be an election issue, and so does wheat prices stabilisation, since the Australian surplus is so large they're running out of places to put it. Recent relief from inflation is also good news for the government, which is also tempted to use the Royal Family politically by pushing for a royal residence (to be used during visits) somewhere near Canberra. And in New South Wales, miners are upset at the threat to coal from gas, oil and hydroelectric.
In London, The Daily Worker is calling an Empire conference because all the subjects of the British Empire have a common cause in anti-imperialism, and the second installment of the "Journal of Geneva" gets up to 5 May and mostly covers the rapid failure of the Korean talks.The Business World
Long Leading articles on London's recovery as a financial centre with some thoughts about widening the range of arbitrage on unofficial exchange values for dollars, and "new thinking" on the EPU that is even more inexplicable to non-financial people.
"Unilever Across the World" What to expect in Unilever's annual report? Overall health, but the article turns to a discussion of the sale at a loss of the Harriet Hubbard Ayers cosmetic subsidiary in the States before overtly asking whether there will be an unpleasant surprise when the report comes in due mainly to losses on margarine sales, already noted in Germany and the Netherlands, and possibly in Britain, too.
Business Notes
Finance, finance, the ECSC, talk of reducing the down payments for a house to encourage home ownership, the risks and rewards of building homes with "hot" money, the public revelation of Windscale with its eery lack of "industrial" activity except for the "ritual safety precautions against the invisible hazard of radiation.""Windscale and Beyond" It is noted that Windscale was built without access to American information and represents a "major act of faith." There is a little more discussion of the safety precautions, which mainly involve keeping all the potential radioactive contamination inside. Windscale was originally built on the assumption that maintenance would be impossible due to the high radiation, but revised health precautions allow exposure to high radiation provided that the average exposure over time is kept to safe limits, and tracking out radioactive debris in your shoes is a great way to turn a brief heavy exposure into a real health risk. The next step is the completion of Calder Hall, which will raise steam and double British plutonium production.
Leaders
"The Usefulness of Gliding" I am sorry, but I do not see it. And the second Leader is on sport gliding!
From All Quarters reports that Britannia will be arriving off Cowes in time to greet the returning royal couple. Canberras are fast, and trials of the latest Martin-Baker ejection seat use a mannequin that is made to be the "average man," which is good for some jokes. There are still pilots who like to fly around to golf courses and talk about it in public.
"Helicopters in War: An Appraisal of the U.S. Army's Experience of Rotating-Wing Transport" Helicopters were very useful in Korea and shine in exercises, but not in a way that revolutionises war just yet, the latest exercises in Fort Bragg pending.
Here and There reports that the Viscount is about to receive an American CAA, and that the 3 Viscounts being procured by the RAF to replace its Vikings will be 700Ds, that among the things being airlifted into Dien Bien Phu were half a ton of ice a day for the camp hospital, that while the RAF has suffered 416 jet aircraft accidents in the last two years, only a "very few" have been caused by engine disintegration. Major General Roscoe C. Wilson is the new commander of USAF 3rd Air Force in Britain.
Aircraft Intelligence reports that the Douglas F4D-1 Skyray and F-100 are in production in America, the Breguet Provence and Dassault Mystere in France.
John Yoxall, "The Queen's Squadron: A History of No. 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force" At this point I have to admit to confusing the 23 April for the 1 May issues and summarising the wrong number. Too bad, you're getting it, and not the 1 May issue. (You're missing yet another brief description of the Nomad, and a much more interesting account of the T-56 on a mockup of a C-130 nacelle being flown on a Constellation testbed at Lockheed. Looks like Allison finally has it right!)Flight flies the Piper Apache and watches the Ryan Firebee in action.
Correspondence
The Industry summarises the Bristol annual report, checks into KLG's sales organisation in America, prints an advertorial for the Minchom "Sempun" magnetic flaw detector for 'on the job' inspections, and for Wynstruments new air-dampened vertical accelerometer. Flight also visits the British Industry Fair under a separate header and picks out six of over a thousand exhibits for special attention before advising that you really need to see them all.
Civil Aviation discusses "The Comet Situation." The remaining Comet 1s have been flown back to Farnborough under "permissions to fly," and will do any future test flying out of Farnborough. De Haviland has curtailed Comet 2 production and transferred staff to other aircraft. BOAC is confident that it will not have to buy aircraft to replace the Comets, and spend precious dollars doing it, although a complicated swap scheme with Qantas for Constellations has been ruled out.
Fortune's Wheel explains its direct mail subscription solicitation after Bill Vaughn of The Kansas City Star made fun of it.
Leaders
"The Sound and the Fury of Robert R. Young" Have you heard enough about the takeover of the New York Central? You have not! You will sit right at this table and you will eat this serving of "railroad trouble" I am glopping on your plate or no playtime for you!The farm lobby battle over whether our fighting men and women will eat more butter or more eggs continues. HOw big is the Air Force, exactly? We ask because of this month's article about LeMay's management problem at SAC. Excerpts of Wilson and Talbott's recent press conference about SAC are printed "in complete confidence that their publication will not help the Russians. It is, in fact, highly uncertain that the conference helped the press." And I agree. 120 wings? 147 wings? 257 wings? It depends on how you count them. Which you shouldn't, because the Air Force doesn't! Russia, it is said, has hidden unemployment. Savings are going up, but not thriftiness. Farm incomes are pretty high these days, "which knocks out one of the legs for farm price supports," but there is still a farm poverty problem, concentrated in farm labourers and "subsistence" farmers in the South.
"The Ambitious Consultants" reports on how management consultants manage their business.
Buffalo station |
"The Changing American Market, X: The Rich Middle-INcome Class" Eighteen million households have $100 billion a year to spend thanks to a cash income after taxes between $4000 and $7500. Two-fifths of them are in that position because more tan one member of the family is working, and most of them are still working in manufacturing --the growth of white collar jobs, while significant, has been overstated. "More than four million" of these households are headed by professionals and proprietors, nearly half of households in those occupation groups. Mechanisation, which has led to more high-skilled jobs, has also driven up wages. That said, unionisation probably has something to do with it, too.
After an article about Senator McCarthy's fundraising drive through Texas that shows strong suppoprt for him amongst Texas oilmen, and that McCarthy has become a very important figure in state politics. However, it also finds that they've been cooling on him since the hearings started. Then it's on to John McDonald's "General LeMay's Management Problem"
SAC is a large organisation that stages a complicated annual wargame and has bomber crews on the front line, which means constant training and readiness flying in big, expensive airplanes, and constant training on electronic simulators when they're not flying, which is confined to 40 hours a month by the cost of flying --up to $700/hour. It is also afflicted with a 20% annual turnover, which makes it awfully hard to maintain its professionalism. SAC wants everyone to know that this is because SAC personnel are constantly being posted around its 32 bases across the country and beyond. (Fully equipped SAC bases
are known to exist in Thule, Greenland, in Morocco, and Britain. B-47s simply don't have the range to attack Russia from the continental United States, although they do have an amazing range for jet bombers and their fast ferry speed is being touted because they are stationed at home in peacetime and will deploy to overseas bases for war in emergencies. It is also because they get so much training that the public sector snaps them up. This leaves SAC just a bit undertrained, says here, which I find a bit alarming considering what their job is! SAC is responsible for a fixed investment of $1.8 billion at home and $1.5 billion abroad, has b2000-2500 tactical aircraft, an operating budget of $848 million, twenty percent of Air Force officers and 17% of Air Force enlisted personnel, and 40 wings of the current 117, 44 of the projected 137 wing Air Force. (See "How Big is the Air Force?") The fleet includes 250 B-36s, and will get enough B-52s to equip 7 heavy bomber wings, each of 30 aircraft plus spares. If you're wondering how it is to carry all those atom bombs for its massive all-out attack on Communism, it has 500 F-84Gs equipped to carry a "small atomic bomb." The B-52 will soon be supplemented by the even faster B-58.
Gilbert Burck, "The German Business Mind" Germans need to start being more competitive and businesslike, and more Germans agree with that than you would think.
I guess it would be emasculating to say that they spell off the operators, too |
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