U.S. CREDITS TO BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24743, 7 December 1945, Page 5

U.S. CREDITS TO BRITAIN

Loan Agreement j Announced

Sj _____ I SETTLEMENT FOR j LEND-LEASE ? —. ■: <NZ - Pres s Association—Copyright) I ;(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 6. I, '£ Tr " man and u Mr At «ee have issued a joint statement a^ ee ™ nt »» an American gran™ o J MOJOOO.OOO dollars m credits to Britain, subject to approval bv | the British Parliament and the United States Congress The i credits are composed as follows:

W-nt-OS ? f i???' 0 ? 0 ; 000 hilars, repayable at 2 per cent, annual interest in 50 instalments, beginning five years hence Congress must approve the loan.

(2) A credit of approximately 650.000,000 dollars, mostlv f rCPr f ent ! ng a final sett]em ent of lend-lease ffi; a fLfESlnf + l UrpIUS American property in Britain, and a final settlement of the war claims each Government has against he th°i Thf s econd credit is repayable on the same terms as the first.but does not require Congressional approval. The figure of 650,000,000 do lan is not exact because the value of end-lease goods in transit has not been finally determined. The United States State Department said the figure was somewhere between 625,000,000 and 700,000.000 somewnere

Britain and America have also agreed on broad principles of commercial policy, including tariffs, cartels, and other subjects for which they will seek world ; support. The joint statement says: These arrangements, if carried out, will end the fear of an economically divided world, make possible a worldwide expansion of employment and of the production, exchange, and consumption of goods, and bring into being for the first time a common code of equitable rules for the conduct of international trade policies and relations."

|j "The British-American loan agreement is ndt all that could Ljhave been wished frpm the British point of view, but it gives n Britain valuable aid during the critical period of economic adjustment, says the diplomatic correspondent of "The Times" |"lf no agreement had been concluded it would have necessitated I cutting down dollar imports to the point of imposing on the I British people an austerity regime more severe than anything 1 yet experienced." "