EUROPE’S REVIVAL

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 February 1949, Page 5

EUROPE’S REVIVAL

It Would Aid And Not Hinder The U.S.A. (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright.) WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (Rec. 6 p.m.)—The revival of Europe’s exports under the Marshall Pian entailed no threat to future American foreign trade, said the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Mr. Willard Thorp) today. He said that if the United States failed to continue substantial dollar help Europe would be unable to maintain a high level of imports from the United States. He saw reasons for optimism on the prospects of the rest of the world obtaining dollars to do a large part of their buying in the United States. Barring a recession, American purchases abroad should continue to be increased. "A decline in our purchases of imports would have a serious impact on world recovery,” he said. A Senate Foreign Relations Committee, meanwhile, studied a report by the Economic Co-operation Administration that it expected trade valued at 3,000,000,000 dollars between Western Europe and Commun-ist-controlled countries in the next two years. The report said the Economic Co-operation Administration was encouraging this trade, but “only within limits of national security.” Machinery, steel and other industrial products were going into Eastern Europe in return for coal, timber, grains, and potash. Failure to maintain East-West trade would impose on the countries of Western Europe the difficult task of finding alternative sources outside Eastern Europe for about 1,500,000,000 dollars worth of commodities annually, and would substantially increase the Marshall