U.S. LOAN TO BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24815, 4 March 1946, Page 5

U.S. LOAN TO BRITAIN

TERMS CONSIDERED HUMILIATING

ADDRESS TO CHAMBER OF SHIPPING LONDON. March 1. Describing the conditions of the American loan to Britain as intolerable and humiliating, the chairman of the Clan Line Steamers, Ltd. (Lord Rotherwick), said at a meeting of the London Chamber of Shipping that the loan was nothing more or less than selling the British Empire and its independence to America. The loan should have been a gift, free of interest. He did not desire to live to see the end of the British Empire and all it meant for employment, happiness, and prosperity. America had attached conditions to the loan because it wanted the markets of the Empire and the sterling area, and viewed the rich Empire markets with longing eyes as an outlet for her increasing production. There was no indication, said Lord Rotherwick, that America had any intention of granting an open door into America for British goods or Empire produce. “The nations of the Empire, by these agreements, are actually forbidden to help one another, whether by tariff preferences or mutual bulk purchase deals, or even bv any form of Government encouragement to buy British or invest in the Empire,” he added. “They are to be denied the right to co-operate in peace as they did in war.” . . America’s demand for the elimination of Empire preference wa,s a direct denial of the right of the British Empire to exist, he said. The most assured hope of Britain’s recovery lay in Empire trade. That hope was now to be jettisoned if the agreements were carried out. Surely, he said, it was far better to- do without Virginian tobacco and American films than to barter away the Empire for them. Everything in the loan and the conditions was designed to stimulate American exports, whereas what the world wanted was for America to buy. and. go on buyA message from Washington states that the president of the Congress of Industrial Organisations (Mr Philip Murray) announced that the C. 1.0. was supporting the proposed credit to Britain as in the best interests of the American working man. “First, the C. 1.0. recognises that the present plight of Britain is essentially the result of war-time expenditure of her resources in the common battle, he said “and. therefore, the United States has clear-cut obligations as the only Allied nation capable of giving effective economic assistance: second, the loan amounts to economic first-aid to Britain, but it is also an essential first step to expanding world trade wherein American labour has a vital stake: third, the loan expresses in practical terms the interdependence of labour in closely allied countries and provides a mutually profitable solution of the present world trade difficulties for both British and American industry.”

He added that the loan at 2 per cent, would be spent to buv the products of American labour. “Certainlv,” he said, “it is not my definition of charity, for the more raw materials and canital goods Britain needs most will actually create new jobs and new profits.”