The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 1945. Lease-Lend

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23287, 24 August 1945, Page 4

The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 1945. Lease-Lend

I HOUGH the cessation of Lease- . lend, the system tinder which the resources of the United Nations were pooled for the purpose of waging war against the Axis countries, will create economic difficulties for the Allies of the United States it did not seem likely that the system would be allowed to continue beyond the duration of actual hostilities. I'or that reason the announcement that Lease-lend is to .cease immediately cannot be altogether a surprise for the countries which have benefited from this form of American assistance during the war. Lease-lend will stand as the greatest contribution made to the Allied cause before the United States became an actual belligerent. From the outbreak of the war there was never any doubt as to where the sympathies of President Roosevelt lay. He could see that ultimately all the freedom-loving nations would be involved in the conflict, but it was impossible for him to run ahead of popular opinion in the United States. A large portion of the American people who could not see the implications of the struggle as clearly as their President were naturally anxious to escape becoming involved in it. However, Mr Roosevelt, after the collapse of France, knew that unless she had the material assistance America alone could supply, Great Britain was doomed. It was then that he devised the Lease-lend scheme under which Great Britain could be supplied with any goods she required. In the abnormal conditions then prevailing cash payment was out of the question. Lease-lend solved that problem. The United States, in the President’s admirable words, became the “arsenal of Democracy,” and as long as the emergency lasted there was no question of payment. The question of payment was never raised because Lease-lend developed in an extraordinary way after the United States entered the war.

In June, when he presented Congress with the 19th quarterly report on the operations of Lease-lend, President Truman said: “Long and costly as the struggle ahead may be, it has been immeasurably shortened by the system of Lease-lend and Reverse Lease-lend. Our fighting partners at the front had more men for the battle than they could supply and, through Lease-lend, we sent the weapons, the food, the material with which they could bear fully their burden of the battle. We cannot measure the sacrifices and heroism of our American forces on the war front or the efforts of the men and women on the production front at home. Nor can w'e measure the contribution to victory of those Allied fighting men who, with their own and Lease-lend weapons, fought and fell. . . . Each of the United Nations has contributed to the pool of fighting power' in accordance with its abilities and capacities.”

Lease-lend, once America was involved in the war, became one of the most powerful instruments in hastening the United Nations’ victory. The system, having been established for so long, was capable of immediate development. America’s Allies were able to render return services which allowed the American people to mass their strength mare rapidly than could have been done had it been necessary to improvise methods of mutual aid. Under Lease-lend, up to the end of March of this year, the United States had sent to Australia and New Zealand Lease-lend shipments valued at £389,432,000. By reverse Lease-lend Australia and New Zealand had been able to supply goods and services valued at £276,359,000, a considerable return to come from countries so small in comparison with the United States. It is not yet possible ,to judge whether the cancellation of the existing Lease-lend agreement means that America is going to place its relations with the United Nations on a strict business footing in the future, of whether the cancellation is merely a formal preliminary to a new arrangement which has yet to be negotiated. One thing certain is that there are countries in Europe which have been so stricken by the war that they cannot enter into any normal trading relations with the United States until they have had a chance to re-establish their economy. In the meantime they are dependent upon the generosity of the favoured countries which have escaped war disorganisation and devastation. It has been suggested in New York that cancellation of the Lease-lend programme means that there must be a return to a bare subsistence diet in Britain, France, Belgium and other countries hitherto dependent on large shipments of Lease-lend food. It seems unlikely that the United States would precipitate a crisis of this kind at a time when Europe is preparing for what may be one of the most tragic winters in history. It is much more likely that the cessation of Lease-lend is simply a formality the significance of which will soon be explained.