Devaluation of the British pound, its effect on government and economy and the veto on Britain’s entry into the Common Market were among the topics discussed by a First Secretary of the British Embassy Information Department in an assembly Dec. 7.
The soft-spoken diplomat assured the audience that he was not “a foreign agent trying to brainwash his listeners!”
He pointed out that tight conditions would prevail, wages would stay down and taxes would rise in the light of the sterling 14.3 value decrease, but “things are not so tight as Americans may think.”
Immediate effects of the movement will be cancellation of helicopter orders from the U.S., reduction of British naval bases and abandonment of a project in the Indian Ocean, the visitor said.
A member of the Diplomatic Service since 1953, Mr. Hill has seen service in Tokyo, Singapore and the London Foreign Office. He was appointed to the Washington office in 1967.
Cryptically alluding to De Gaulle’s veto, Mr. Hill foresees no immediate chances of the door being opened for his country’s entry into the Common Market.
In a question and answer session following his general remarks, the First Secretary, now making a four-state speaking tour, touched on Rhodesian policy, U. S. riots, socialism, the brain drain, comprehensive high schools, drug addiction, jungle fighting in Malaya and Viet Nam.
“It is impertinent and stupid for outsiders to give advice,” Mr. Hill admonished, “but the riots in your country are shocking and puzzling for us to understand.”
Mr. Hill says his countrymen can not understand the “American tolerance for violence, its disrespect for police and the carrying and discharging of weapons in public places.”
He advocated a specially trained riot police squad to cope with the problem.
On the matter of drug addiction, on a question directed to him about his country’s over-use of drugs, he pointedly replied that America’s problems seemed