as beven called it. and they wanted out. there was no point in staying despite the losses that the british army suffered to terror. also, the british had the largest military base in the world at suez. being in palestine was surpuff lewis. in 1949 with the booming british economy and jet aviation setting all kinds of records for the british, with the fear of stalinism having abated in the face of the marshall plan, with the prospect of a north alliance, a north atlantic alliance treaty, coming to the floor, all looked well to the british and the americans. except in early 1949, the u.s. slid into recession. it would be a relatively mild recession but the scary thing about recessions is that you don't know how severe they are going to be. and what happened even more so was britain then followed suit, and what all described at the moment as a likelihood of the greatest economic calamity the world had seen was about to descend that fall in 1949. in an unprecedented move secretary of the treasury william sny