FORD’S APPROVAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 6 December 1940, Page 2

FORD’S APPROVAL

MONEY FOR BRITAIN IF NEEDED MR ECCLES OUTLINES SCHEME f U.P.A.— By Electric Telegraph-Copyright j NEW YORK, 4th December. In Detroit to-day Mr Henry Ford ' said that if Britain needs money he j i favoured giving them all they want. “It ! will end the war in a hurry,” he said. ' I “We did it before, and we might as well 1 do it again.” The financier and banker, Mr Mariner Stoddard Eccles. released a “full and correct" text of the speech ! j which he made yesterday on financial , aid to Britain at a meeting of bankers industrialists, and economists. He denied that he proposed a 2.500.000.000dollar loan to Britain and said the facts had been distorted. The text stated: “I believe that Congress. in considering all the interrelated elements of the monetary picture. should consider whether or not it would be wise to make credits avail able at low rates as a means of aiding the British, taking as collateral their gold and also their security holdings ; here and in Canada and elsewhere." j Mr Eccles outlined his scheme at a meeting in camera of the National In- ! dustrial Conference Board. He declari ed that it was to be expected that the ! Empire’s gold would flow to the United States, where it would be bought by the {Treasury, thus swelling the bank rej serves and increasing the danger of ! inflation. On the other hand, the funds |of the proposed loan could be raised ; by the sale of securities and the gold would be earmarked as a backing in- ; stead of passing to the reserve. | Mr Eccles’s views, which were widely circulated by members of the coni ference, have aroused interest due to the controversy over granting Britain j credits and also because it is Mr j Eccles’s first departure from the “easy j money’’ policy, ' The chairman of the Senate Foreign . Relations Committee. Senator George. ! urged that war material factories i should be placed on a 24 hours working j basis and the arms production pro-1 j gramme stepped up to a wartime pace | ; because material aid to Britain must j be given quickly if it was to be most | effective.