Mr Butlers Speech On Exports (1950)
Downing Street, London. 1952 Various shots of Rab A. Butler, Chancellor of the Exchequer, seated at desk natural sound: In the last few months, every family in the country, every week has been using up over a pound s worth of food and materials that hasn t been earned by our exporters, and has to be paid for out of our savings. That s deadly serious, isn t it It s got to be stopped. Foreigners don t owe us anything. We live by trading, and if we can t earn enough by our trade, we won t get enough to eat, and we won t get enough materials to enable us to keep our jobs. What s more if we don t get things right quickly, the world will lose confidence in us, and a bad position will get worse. We must become strong and independent again, so that we can look the whole world in the face. The cuts I ve announced are necessary, and no doubt we shall have some discussion about them, but, they are not the only remedy. What we want to do is to produce more, so that we can export more. And that is the key to everyt
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