PRO AND CON

Grey River Argus, 18 February 1946, Page 5

PRO AND CON

U.S. LOAN TO BRITAIN

Senators’ Views

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15

Full support for the American loan to Britain was voiced by Senator W. R. Austin (Republican, Vermont), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, speaking in the United States Senate. He declared the loan was necessary to enable the United States to pay off a large war debt by means of expanded trade and production which the loan would induce.

The proposal, he said, should be considered on a non-partisan basis. Trade expansion depended upon the removal or reduction of trade barriers such as Imperial preference and Britain’s sterling pool. Representative K. Stefan (Republican, Nebraska) told the. House that America needed a modern Paul Revere to gallop through the countryside shouting “the British are earning.” Senator S. Bridges (New Hampshire), on behalf of himself and seven other Republican senators, told the Senate that President Truman should inform Congress of all facts on the. foreign loan commitments, including the proposed British credit. Mr. Bridges declared the condition of the American Government accounting on foreign transactions was a national scandal, and added that he and his seven colleagues felt the Administration was making Congress a participant in a most, astonishing game on the projected British Joan and those expected to follow. Mr. Bridges complained that Congress received the least possible information, and that as confusing as human ingenuity could contrive. He submitted a resolution asking the President to supply, within forty-five days, a complete report on all loan commitments and other aid to all foreign Governments, and also asked for complete data on all past unpaid public and private loans to foreign nations and an estimate of how these and future loans were to be repaid. He also asked for the per capita tax burdens involved. CAMPAIGN AGAINST LOAN

SENATORS VERY EMPHATIC

(Rec. 8.0) NEW YORK, Feb. 16. Senators Burton, Wheeler and Edwin Johnson, leading Democratic, opponents of the British-American trade agreement, opened a light on a proposal in a nationwide broadcast, in which they advanced arguments which will be heard increasingly in Congress as the debate progresses, says a New York “Times” Washington correspondent. Senator Wheeler said: “If w’e have four thousand million dollars to give away, let us turn our attention to the United States, where we have very difficult problems. We have millions of veterans returning. They are going to make large demands upon the country. We have slums, where money could be • used for the public good. While I sympathise with Britain’s plight, first of all I am thinking of the United States. Senator Johnson declared: This loan would start an avalanche of foreign loans. We are asked to lend to Socialist Britain four thousand millions, nationalistic China two thousand millions, Socialist-Commun-ist France twenty-five hundred millions, Communist Russia six thousand millions —a grand total of fifteen thousand millions to finance nations that publicly and officiallv denounce American capitalism. The British loan is not to provide relief for starving people, but for relief of a decadent empire. My slogan is: “Billions for the relief of starving children —not one cent of the American taxpayers’ money for the relief of empire':"