BRITAIN'S DOLLAR SHORTAGE EMBARRASSMENT TO AMERICA

Evening Star, Issue 26184, 20 August 1947, Page 5

BRITAIN'S DOLLAR SHORTAGE EMBARRASSMENT TO AMERICA

NEW YORK, August 18. The ‘ Herald-Tribune,’ in a leader on the Anglo-Afnerican loan talks, says the embarrassing question is raised, “ What does the United States really want of Britain 9 It is ' embarrassing because the cruel answer is embarrassingly simple. \ye want Britain to have enough dollars to continue taking. our surpluses—whether of the farm or of the film industry—-and otherwise supporting a free-and fruitful international trading system without ourhaving to supply the dollars.ourselves. The answer is not an easy one. The United States wants dollar loans to Britain to result in an. economy productive enough .to repay the loans and continue buying from America what it is essential for America to sell. “ Demanding that Britain reduce her dollar imports and expand her competitive dollar-winning exports to a point at-which.she is-free of the. dollar altogether is obviously not going to achieve this end,” the paper'says. a On the other hand, pouring unrepayable dollar loans into Britain is an even less attractive and potentially more dangerous course. What we really want of Britain is something in be : tween, but to find it is as much ouf problem as it is Britain’s.”