Storm Over Britain

Series

Series Name

The March of Time 12th Year

Issue

Issue No.

7

Date Released

24 Apr 1947

Length of issue (in feet)

1670

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Storm Over Britain

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 1

Summary

The March of Time synopsis: In "Storm over Britain" the March of Time discusses the rapidly multiplying difficulties that have contributed to the domestic crisis with which Great Britain is grappling today - difficulties that are appearing faster than solutions can be found and applied.

The film shows the enormous tasks with which the Labour Government has been faced since it commenced its term of office. Under its new leaders, points out The March of Time. Britain became the first nation to attempt to combine a planned economy with a large measure of individual rights and liberties - though government planners have been forced to build their social revolution on an economy already violently disrupted by the war and with a people exhausted by years of national effort. To pay for the imports which are her mainstay Britain must have foreign exchange but, with her income from immense foreign investments drastically reduced, Great Britain is disastrously short of funds, and the nation’s chief hope of staving off economic disaster is by raising her exports to the highest possible level. To achieve this the country has had to call for tremendous sacrifice on the part of the British people, which has meant the continuation of the stringent rationing imposed as a wartime measure. In discussing the Labour Government’s programme the film shows the efforts made to provide homes for the million and a quarter families who need rehousing; the attempts to increase agricultural productionl; the drive to keep Britain’s position as the world’s greatest converter of imported raw materials, which, despite the handicap of obsolescent and worn out machinery, has resulted in an increase of exports by eleven per cent over the pre-war level.

"Storm over Britain" also shows the contributing factors leading up to the recent fuel crisis, in the midst of which came the government report warning the British people that even greater sacrifices and harder work would be required to achieve the production programme essential to the very future of the United Kingdom. A serious obstacle to this, points out the film, is the critical shortage of manpower. In Britain’s key industries anywhere from six to sixtyseven per cent more workers are needed to reach even pre-war levels of employment, yet Britain is still having to induct recruits into her army to maintain a sufficient force to police occupied Germany and to meet her Empire commitments. In discussing the view held by a large minority in Britain that no recovery is possible so long as private enterprise is frustrated by Socialist planning, the film points out that, despite growing dissatisfaction, the Labour Government still commands the support of a majority of the British people, who are confident that their country can survive today’s crisis as it has survived others in the past.

Researcher Comments

This story was included in Vol.13 No.9 of the US edition.

Keywords

Politics and government; Economics; Social conditions

Written sources

Monthly Film Bulletin   Vol.14 No.161 May 1947, p73.
The March of Time Promotional Material   Lobby Card, Used in synopsis

Credits:

Production Co.

Time Inc.