U.S. SENATE PASSES AID BILL FOR EUROPE

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 March 1948, Page 6

U.S. SENATE PASSES AID BILL FOR EUROPE

WASHINGTON, March 14

The United States Senate, after a session which lasted more than 11 hours, passed the European Recovery Programme Bill early this morning by 69 votes to 17. The vote marked the first approval by either House of the plan outlined by the Secretary of State (General G. Q, Marshall) at Harvard last June.

The passing of the Bill without substantial change from the form in which it was introduced was a triumph for Senator Arthur Vandenberg, the Republican foreign policy leader, who time after time took the floor to call for the rejection of amendments proposing major changes. Taft’s Proposal Defeated Thirty-one Republicans and 38 Democrats voted for the Bill. Against it where 13 Republicans and four Democrats.

The passage of' the Bill became assured after the defeat last night of a proposal by Senator Robert Taft (Republican, Ohio) to cut the first year’s outlay to 4,000,000,000 dollars. Senator Taft said that the programme “is completely without economic justification, but is justified by the- world battle against Communism.”

Lower House Decision Awaited The- Bill was first called in the Senate on March 1. Its passage came after a total of 69 hours 17 minutes of debate. The time of the debate thus matched the final vote. The Bill, which provides for the expenditure of 5,300,000,000 dollars in the first year of the programme, beginning on April 1, will now go to the House of Representatives. Its passage there is expected, but strong efforts may be made to reduce the dollar outlay and to add other foreign aid funds to the Bill.