Basic HTML Version
in
the wake of today's WORLD EVENTS
•
British Far East Command Scrapped
Another segment of the British empire has been given
up after a colorful history of over 100 years. The British Far
East Command, which stretched from Africa to the Pacific,
was termioated on Octobcr 31. In its place is a new allíance
composed of Malaysía, Síngapore, Britain, Australia and New
Zealand.
Over 138,000 British, Australian, Indian and volunteer
soldiers of the Far East Command fought the Japanese in a
World War
JI
battle for Singapore. Just a few years ago this
British Command had at its disposal 70,000 crack troops for
the defense of Malaya and Singapore. Now the British Com–
mand is gone and there are only about 2,000 British troops
remaining in the new defense alignment.
Hopes are that this five-nation force can successfully
defend the Singapore-Malaysia area as the British have done.
In the years 1948 to 1960 when Communist forces tried to
subjugate Malaya, British counter-guerrilla forces ultimately
won out. The question is, can the new defense alignment farc
as well in the face of interna! stri fe?
Critics have alrcady brought this new alliance under fire.
They claim there is no dearly defined responsibility in the
sphere of interna! insurrection, a major problem in this vol–
atile area.
The decision to pull out also comes at a time when So–
viet Russia is building up its naval forces in the Indian Ocean
and is clearly trying to increase its inRuence in the Southeast
Asian area.
UPI
Former British noval facilities ot Singopore.
•
Britain Faces Bleak Economic Future
"The long, slow decline of our nation is accelerating
into a collapse," stated an editorial in
the
May 1971,
London
Daily Mail.
As we enter 1972, Britain is in the throes of the
worst unemployment problem it has faced since the 1930's.
The unemploymcnt figures hover around the
1
million mark.
A number of British officials are concerned that the total num–
ber of people out of work could level off at about 900,000
and remain there for months if not years.
Terms such as "appalling' ' and "crisis proportions" are
beíng applicd to Britain's unemployment figures. But cven
with the high rate of joblessness, British industry is still
plagued by large-scale absenteeism. An official study con–
ducted by the Ministry of Employment shows that ab–
senteeism cost an estimated 300 million working days each
year.
The number of strikes in Britain has been following a
trend of fewer but Jonger walkouts. These longer walkouts
during the first seven months of 1971 cost British industry
more Iost working days than in all of 1970.
The International Monetary Fund recently reported sorne
sobering news for the average Briton. The cost of living in
Britain rose significantly faster over the first half of 1971
than in any industrial nation. At the end of June, consumer
prices in Britain were 10.3 percent higher than a year earl ier,
while consumer price increases in the Common Market aver–
aged out at about half the British rate.
College students are generally finding it difficult to
obtain employment. A government survey has found that
fewer than 37 percent of the university graduates took jobs