 Longin watches have won 10 World Fair grand prizes, 28 gold medals and more honors for accuracy than any other timepiece. Longin, the world's most honored watch, is made and guaranteed by the Longin Wittgenall Watch Company. It's time for the Longin Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour brought to you every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A presentation of the Longin Wittgenall Watch Company, maker of Longin, the world's most honored watch, and Wittgenall, distinguished companion to the world-honored Longin. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Longin Chronoscope? Mr. Stanley High of Readers Digest and Colonel Ansel Talbert, an editor of the New York Herald Tribune. Our distinguished guest for this evening is Mr. Henry Haslett, contributing editor of Newsweek and publisher of The Freeman. Mr. Haslett has just returned from an extensive tour of Europe, during which he interviewed the leaders of the various countries he visited. The opinions expressed are necessarily those of the speakers. Henry, I'm sure that the Chronoscope audience welcomes the appearance this evening of one of its permanent editors, the guest expert. I wonder if you'd mind telling us where you've been and a few of the people you've seen. Well, I didn't range around too far. I spent about ten days in London and then I was about two weeks in France. In London, it's pretty hard to see people nowadays, the politicians, because they're all out electioneering. But I did see some of the conservative leaders like David Eccles. I saw a lot of the economists and fellows like Crowe, the editor of the Economist, and a lot of the academic people. In Paris, I saw Jean Monet, the author of the Monet Plan, also the Schumann Plan. And I saw the premier, René Plevin, and I had a long-ish talk with General Eisenhower. We, Henry, are more and more interested, I think, in the outcome of the British election, since we're going to have one of our own before very long. And what did you find out in England about the prospects? How do things stand as of the present? Well, as you know, Stanley, it's sometimes not much, sometimes just as hard to tell what's going to happen when you're inside a country as it is when you're outside, as we discovered in 1948. To our sorrow. If you judge, if you judge by the way people talk, you'd wonder where the labor votes are coming from. Now, that doesn't mean that I spoke to a lot of the obvious labor voters. But the kind of people who, four years ago, were on labor's side, a lot of them have swung over. A lot of them who don't believe much in the conservatives say, well, the main thing is to get rid of this crowd that's in now. They talk, it's quite fashionable today, and I think that's the important thing. It's quite fashionable to talk against the labor government. That's the thing that struck me. What's the thing that they hold against the labor government chiefly? Well, it's almost everything. They just have the feeling it can't do anything right. I think it stumbled into some bad luck lately, but they don't like the controls. They think it stumbles every two years into a new crisis, and that it manufactures this crisis. They think that it can't stop inflating. They blame it for the inflation. And of course, there was a great feeling of humiliation among the people there at the outcome of the Persian dispute when I was there. Henry, how do you think that a conservative victory would affect Britain's attitude on the Iranian oil problem? Well, it's got to a point now where it's hard to say what anybody could do. There would certainly be some stiffening of attitude there if it's possible to stiffen it. It's possible to do anything. I think it would be more than bluster. I think they would, if there's any time left to do anything in, I think they would do anything. I think answer's question brings up a point that we're all interested in. What difference would a conservative victory mean anyway? Well, that's a little hard to say, especially what sort of difference it would make in the economic situation over there. Now, when you analyze the manifestos of the two parties, it comes down to this. That the only thing the conservatives really promise to denationalize is the steel industry. And they're even worried about how they're going to denationalize that. I was president at a talk at the reform club of about a half a dozen newspaper men, economists, industrialists, and so on. And they have this problem, how are you going to do this? How are you going to get it back? Unscramble the thing. And that problem is much more serious than all these other industries. So they don't even promise to denationalize coal. In fact, they insist they want to keep that nationalized. They don't mention denationalizing the railways. They don't mention denationalizing the Bank of England. They don't mention denationalizing the gas and electricity. They don't mention denationalizing the communications and so on. What about medicine? So medicine, they don't mention that at all. Apparently that is so popular in spite of all the criticisms that the conservatives are afraid to touch it. So it's a curious situation in which the conservatives are in effect saying, we'll administer this socialism better because we don't believe in it. How about the attitude of the British people in regard to a conservative victory and the possibility that this might bring the nation closer to a war with Russia? Did you hear anything on that? Well, there are a lot of people on the conservative side who are very worried about the effect of the war-mongering charge. They think that that is the biggest weapon that the laborites have, the charge of war-mongering, the charge of getting into a war. How serious, how deep that goes, I don't know. But I think that this sense of humiliation that has hit the British people as a result of this Iranian episode will be greater. That's just my guess about the thing. I've heard a lot of comments from people who want to know better, British people want to know better, expressing a very anti-American feeling. And apparently in some circles, but there's a rising tide of anti-Americanism, which was apparent even before the selection started, is there going to be a factor in the campaign? And what's the reason they feel the way they apparently do about it? Well, I think it's fundamentally... I didn't meet it, I didn't encounter it, I didn't get any evidence of it. Some Americans who are there, who are living there steadily, assure me that it's so. I didn't encounter anything that I could find. That's nice to you. Yes. I didn't encounter anything of that sort. But of course, in the political meetings, they're very afraid. The conservatives are afraid of the charge of being pro-American, of being a tale to the American kite. And that's the thing I think that is the feeling, the feeling that England has been reduced to sort of a tale to the American kite. And that's why I think that more, not so much hatred, but it's a sort of resentment and mixed with a little envy. It's sort of an accurate description, though, isn't it? Yes. A tale to the American kite. Yes. How about re-armament? Do you think that the British are taking their re-armament efforts seriously? I think they're taking it pretty seriously. The people that I talked to were taking it pretty seriously. And the British are obviously taking their re-armament much more seriously than the French are taking theirs. I think there's a big difference in spirit between the British and French people. An awful lot of people who are there, who see the situation very closely, have the definite feeling that French aren't going to fight. There's not much fight in them. They don't want to fight. But you don't get that feeling at all from the British. You get a much different feeling. And I don't think that the foreign policy of Britain in Iran and elsewhere reflects the feeling of the people. Of course, that leads right up to the question. I was going to ask about the situation on the continents, as far as the communist threat is concerned, whether there is a growing realization that communism is a threat and whether there's a growing seriousness of preparation to face that threat and do something about it. Well, that undoubtedly is that feeling. But the French are very, of course, very deeply divided. Now, if you analyze what happened there, in 1947, 28 and 5-10 percent of the electorate voted communist. Today, that fell to 26 and 4-10 percent, something like that. In other words, in all this four-year period, martial plan and all, and all that the French have learned, as well as ourselves, about the real attitude of Soviet Russia, with all that, there's only been this drop of two percentage points in the communist vote. And I don't think that there's anything to brag about. I think the French communists are very, very strong in France today. Just on that same point, if we pulled out the resistance to communism, it would pretty soon disappear, wouldn't it? That's awfully hard to say. I don't know just what the effect of that of our being there is. In my talk with General Eisenhower, it was more or less off the record, as I understood it. But the theme of it was the economic aspect of the whole business of NATO and the Atlantic pack. And the problem that he is struggling with, the problem that's very much, very high in his mind is this. How do you tell how much a country of Europe, let's call it Ruritania, how do you tell how much that country can contribute to its own health? Is it a matter that you can pin down? Is it a matter that you can pin down economically? Is it a matter that you can pin down statistically that at Ruritania you can give so and so because it has such and such national income? Or is it simply a matter of the spirit of the country and their willingness to do it? And I don't feel free to give these answers, but that's the problem that General Eisenhower is very much concerned with. And of course, he has this problem daily and constantly coming up in every possible aspect with one country after another. Well, Henry, one last question. When I was in France a few weeks ago, I noticed that prices seemed very high. Did they seem that way to you? Oh yes, terrific. And that's one of the reasons why the franc is so weak because at 350 francs to the dollar, you pay for a meal in Paris today, you pay 50 or 60% more than you would for an equivalent meal in the same type of restaurant. And that sort of thing can't go on. Thank you very much, Mr. Haslitt. It's been a pleasure to have you with us this evening. Good night. The editorial board for this edition of the Launcine Chronoscope was Mr. Stanley High and Colonel Talbert. Our distinguished guest was Mr. Henry Haslitt. As you approach Paris from the west, you get your first glimpse of the famous Eiffel Tower, a monumental structure of iron, 985 feet high, which was erected for the Great Paris Exposition of 1889. Among the exhibits at this exposition were fabulous displays of watches, products of the world's leading watchmakers including, of course, Launcine watches. During most of the past hundred years, as you know, the standard for excellence for products of every type from every land was determined by impartial juries of experts at world's fairs and international expositions. At the Paris Exposition of 1889, Launcine was honored with a grand prize, the highest of all awards. And most significant is the fact that Launcine is the only watch in history to win 38 highest awards at such world's fairs and international expositions, 10 grand prizes and 28 gold medals. It can truly be said that no other name on a watch means so much as Launcine, the world's most honored watch, premier product of the Launcine Witner Watch Company, since 1866, maker of watches of the highest character. This is Frank Knight again reminding you that the Launcine Chronoscope is brought to you three times weekly, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so won't you join us every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening at this same time for the Launcine Chronoscope. 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