Huge Cuts In’ Military Expenditure

In a rare moment of truth, a week or so ago, Anthony Crosland admitted that one of the causes of the crisis which led up to devaluation was Britain attempting to "play a world role." Wilson has described this as trying to play a meaningful role in world affairs. We would @scribe this in a different manner: the huge arms expenditures are made necessary by British imperialism. The forces in the Persian Gulf are there to protect the investments of Shell, B.P. and other oil firms. The forces which were used in jungle warfare in Malaysia were there to ensure the continued exploitation of rubber and tin by British firms. As part of a whole new foreign policy, arms expenditure should be slashed to the minimum. All bases maintained by British imperialism should be given up. The arms industry and military depots should be turned over to crash programmes to solve pressing social problems such as housing. Not only would this make huge sums available for social services it would also aid the balance of payments problem. But ending overseas commitments would mean making a decisive break from imperialist polices and neo-colonialisme