LOAN FOR BRITAIN

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28160, 26 December 1956, Page 7

LOAN FOR BRITAIN

Dollar Aid For Oil

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON, December 24

The United States ExportImport Bank has announced a line of credit of 500 million dollars to the British Government.

This was the second dramatic move within a fortnight to provide sterling with sufficient reserves to increase world confidence in the £. The official announcement of the bank said:

“The Export-Import Bank and the British Embassy announced today that the bank had authorised a line of credit of 500 million dollars in favour of the British Government to be available for the United Kingdom’s dollar requirements for United States goods and services, including dollar requirements for petroleum. “The line of credit will be made against the United Kingdom Government’s holdings of United States dollar securities. It will be available for a period of 12 months.

“Repayments will begin three years after each disbursement, and will be made in semi-annual instalments over four and one half years thereafter. “Interest on each disbursement will be chargeable at 4£ per cent, payable semi-annually.” The Export-Import Bank is a United ■States Government agency which finances United States exports. Loans from the bank are normally limited for the purchase of goods on the United States domestic market. But a bank spokesman today explained that this latest loan could also be used for the purchase of oil from Venezuela—one of the chief producing countries in the Western hemisphere.

Christmas In Antarctic

(Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, Dec. 25. A Roman Catholic priest and a Protestant minister joined last night in leading a Christmas Eve service in the world’s most southern church, the American Associated Press reported from McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The chapel was built from sections of four left-over quonset huts by Father John Condit. The steeple was made from plywood. The altar was decorated with pine branches from New Zealand and fir branches from Oregon.

Chaplain Peter 80l shared with Father Condit the conduct of the service for members of the United States Antarctic expedition.

The chapel in the snow is the only building in the Antarctic continent wholly devoted to religion.

Christmas For Troops In Malaya

(Rec. 11 p.m.) KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 25.

Thirtv-six lucky members of the New Zealand squadron fighting in Malaya got two Christmas dinners this year.

They took part in a squadron dinner on December 10 just before the squadron went into the jungle for a 10-week patrol against Communist terrorists. But 21 base camp staff and 15 men who were too ill to go with the patrols took part in the usual festivities today in their camp near Kuala Lumpur. One of those who enjoyed double Christmas celebrations was Trooper Colin Ryan, of Glynne crescent, Christchurch.

Parcels for the troops from the New Zealand National Patriotic Fund were distributed in a camp just before Christmas and dropped by parachute along with home mail and parcels to patrols in the jungle.

Praise for N.Z. Singer.— Kathleen Reardon, of Mount Eden, Auckland, showed at a Wigmore Hall concert that “she possesses a mezzo-soprano voice of unusually fine quality.” reports the “Daily Telegraph.”—London. December 24.