PURCHASES FROM U.S.A.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 38, 25 November 1940, Page 6

PURCHASES FROM U.S.A.

THE FINANCIAL PROBLEM AMBASSADOR’S STATEMENT. LONDON, November 24. - On his return to the United States bv air from Britain, the British Ambassador (Marquis of Lothian) said at New York: “Britain’s financial problem is urgent. If we are to get through 1941, which we believe will be a tough year, something will have to be done about finances.”

The Ambassador added that ho would not attempt to say what,form assistance should take, but that munitions, ships, and financial aid were the three things Britain most needed. A Washington message says that Lord Lothian told the press that Britain would continue to pay cash for war materials from the United States for only six to 12 months. After that effective aid to Britain must be by credits. “Mr Roosevelt’s: fifty-fifty programme is ’very fine. That is one thing arid the matter of paying is another.”

Lord Lothian’s statement has been quickly seized on by Axis propagandists ; but it should be borne in mind thataal l: that Britain gets from the United States is paid for in casli or by securities. From time to time the British Government has mobilised securities held iir the United States, but the total is obviously not unlimited. When these securities are exhausted it will not mean that Britain is “broke,” but only that her credits in the United States are exhausted. British investments iq South America alone total hundreds of millions, and tliere aro big holdings elsewhere. The ‘premature jubilation of the Axis! at the Ambassador’s statement is significant in view of the immediate plundering of every occupied country by Germany.

Lord Lothian’s statement is given prominence in the New York newspapers, and various ( unofficial suggestions are made for giving help to Britain.

Senator W. F. George, new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Commitee, said that the policy of' full aid to Britain was being continued.. Tfi has also been noted in the United States that Lord Lothian’s statement of Britain’s needs does not include manpower Mr Roosevelt said on Friday that the United States was doing everything possible at present to send aid to Britain, and he inferred that the present fifty-fifty rule, under which Britain received half of,United States production, represented just about America’s maximum assistance in the present circumstanced. The President said that talk of additional did on the basis of the country’s present production capacity was not more than glittering generalities that meant absolutely nothing. Ho made it clear that he saw no likelihood of more extensive aid, at least for the time being. I Mr Roosevelt that there was no real basis for talk of new measures for aiding Britain. He said that there was nothing in the Government’s plan to indicate the possibility of extending credits to Britain or using United States warships to convoy .British shipments part of the way across the Atlantic.

A PHRASE EXPLAINED.

LONDON PAPER’S COMMENT,

(Received This Day, 12.50 p.m.), LONDON, November 24

The “Sunday Dispatch” says it communicated with the Ministry of Information, in reference to the Marquess ol : Lothiaii’s reported statement that Britain is beginning to come to the end of her financial resources. Some hours later a statement w'as issued pointing out that the financial resources which the Ambassador said were coming to an end are “available gold and securitiesas he madia clear. The dispatch proceeds: “Britain has to pay- cash -in, advance for all munitions sold by the United States. This is an- arrangement no business concern, ' even the most flourishing, could carry on indefinitely, but Lord Lothian chose to launch this extraordinary phrase on the world when the very greatest issues are teing settled; in the Balkans. The phrase will chill Greeks and dismay Turkey, and be seized byGerman propagandists. It will be clear to all who understand tluei position that Lord- Lothian intended to refer to our dollar resources, but the phrase, without that important reservation, was cabled throughout the world.”