The Convertibility Crisis of last summer is not due to the improvidence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer but a kind of natural phenomenon like an eruption or a tidal wave.
At any rate, we were able to keep up just about the 2,800 calorie level through these very difficult first six months - the period after the Convertibility Crisis of last August and before the negotiation of the European Recovery Programme.
What is the chief lesson for us of the very critical nine months we have been through between the Convertibility Crisis and the moment of the passage of the European Recovery Programme?
They are the abrupt changes and cutting back of food contracts at the time of the Convertibility Crisis; the repudiation of our paper contract; and, thirdly, the unhelpful, if unintended, propaganda by Ministers against British industry.
The Convertibility Crisis of 1947 was, in my view, brought about very largely by too lavish releases of sterling balances.
Whether he was really anxious about the Convertibility Crisis or whether he just thought it was an opportunity of grabbing a little more power, I do not know.
Secondly, largely as a result of imprudent financial administration, partly from the Convertibility Crisis and other pieces of inefficiency, we had to devalue the pound, so that the pound which used to buy four dollars worth of American cotton, after September, 1949, only bought about 2.
The Eady-Miranda Agreement failed in the end, because it was hopelessly shaken by the Convertibility Crisis of 1947.
That coincided almost exactly with the Convertibility Crisis.
Over and over again in the last few years we have had the sort of statement that "Everything is all right at home, we are doing wonderfully, but by some curious accident we happen to have a Convertibility Crisis" or a dollar gap or some such difficulty.
No start was made at the time, because in 1947 came the Convertibility Crisis, when Sir Stafford Cripps turned off the tap, and no further road construction was possible during that phase of our economic troubles.
In 1949, we had the Convertibility Crisis and the cost of a great number of our imports automatically went up 40 per cent.
The other was in 1947, after the Convertibility Crisis.
The Agreement was signed in 1948 and was the direct result of the Convertibility Crisis of 1947 which led the Government to impose a heavy duty on imported films.
Right hon. and hon. Gentlemen opposite come into this contest, if they wish to make it a contest, with very dubious battle honours on their standard - the Convertibility Crisis in 1947, devaluation in 1949, and a balance of payments crisis in 1951.
Most of the American and Canadian loans went down the drain because of the Convertibility Crisis.
Following the Convertibility Crisis in 1947, the Government blocked American film earnings in this country and cut them off until, after negotiations with the late Mr. Eric Johnston, we released 25 per cent.