Devaluation of the Pound Hits SG.

The book on GKS mentions how the British devaluation of the pound
in 1967 affected Singapore. Singapore's foreign exchange reserves
in pound sterling decreased in value by SGD $157 million.
SG, which had intended to use this money to purchase airplanes,
suddenly found tt it was no longer there.

(More interestingly, it reveals how much $$$ SG had hidden away back
in 1967, for if a 14% devaluation was some 150 odd million - the total
sum muz have been over a billion, so we werent poor even back then)

This came as a shock because the British government had denied
for 20 times over the past 37 months that they intended to devalue the pound.
"I am quite shocked," said Sir Patrick Hennessy, chairman of Ford Motor Co.
"I have personally told my business friends abroad that it would not happen.
I could not believe that the government would go back on its statements."
Juz another example which backs up Jim Rogers observation tt
such announcements abt "defending the currency" cant be trusted.

In a sense, the British government was "forced" to devalue. It cldnt borrow
anything more to defend the pound as it was not prepared to give in to the the
harsh terms set down by creditors. From the macro perspective, Britian's
weak currency was more a symptom of her numerous economic problems
than anything else. There was only so much bleeding it cld tolerate before it
was finally forced to devalue.

But back to the story. In SG, LKY and GKS were also taken aback by this sudden
devaulation. Being rather pissed at all this, they flew to London to vent their
frustrations, so to speak.

The British must have felt kinda paiseh, for they agreed to give Singapore
the radar defence system their built up here free of charge. They also agreed
to train SG pilots (presumably free also) to help SG form an airforce after the
British withdrew.