FUTURE OF LEND-LEASE

Grey River Argus, 21 March 1945, Page 6

FUTURE OF LEND-LEASE

WASHINGTON, March 17. The United States House by 354 votes to 28, passed a bill to extend lend lease, but the House directed the Administration not to use lencHease for post-war relief, rehabilitation or reconstruction. The Bill, as sent to the S'enate, extends the Lend-Lease Act to June 30, 1946, under which agreements can be fulfilled., Th e Chairman (Mr. Bland) of the Mercantile Marine Committee told the House there would be no transfers of ocean-going merchantmen under lend-lease. NEW YORK, March 17. The “New York Times”, in an editorial, said: Restrictions' on the use for post-war relief and reconstruction are perfectly proper, since lendlease is simply a war measure. There will b e the need of large United States’ contributions for purposes of relief, and also wise lending of money for rehabilitation and reconstruction, but these activities can and should be managed independently, under the auspices of other agencies. “It might be as well to destroy the lend-lease structure with the firing of the last shot in Europe,” states the “Herald-Tribune” in an editorial. “However, there still remain vast economic voids, which will have to be filled somehow, and for which new 'structures must be provided. To decree thg demobilising of one system without bringing positive suggestions concerning the creation of a new one is hardly "adequate to the real problem that the United States will have to meet.” A “New York Times'" columnist, Arthur Krock, commented that the House’s quick approval and the perfunctory manner in which the short debate was conducted were the direct result of the amendment made in committee, without which the extension might have been rejected. The amendment restricts lend-lease to defence articles for use only in promoting the defence of the United States. The intention of this is to provide that nothing M shipped without payment to any nation shall become a free donation except for purposes directly linked to United States defence. This was forced on the Democratic majority by the Republicans who saw in the recent French lend-lease agreement a second phase that could result in the use of free goods for purely, national purposes abroad.