CESSATION OF LEASE-LEND

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 1, 28 August 1945, Page 4

CESSATION OF LEASE-LEND

THE people of the British Empire will find it difficult to understand the American decision to terminate the LeaseLend Agreement inaugurated by the late President Roosevelt, at a vital juncture like the present. At a time when Great Britain is faced with the enormous task of readjusting her industries to a peace-time basis, after nearly six years of intensive war;,, she is in urgent need of all the • vital commodities she can get, and yet her greatest and erstwhile ally, deprives her of the all-important foodstuffs upon which she is dependent. It has also to be remembered that Britain still feeds a vast army on the continent, composed of not'merely her own nationals but of almost every allied c6untry which ranged itself against Hitlerism. Not only does this apply to the armed forces she has put into the field, but as has been proved over and over again, the Army Commissariat is becoming increasingly responsible for the feeding of the civilian population as well. Thus it will be seen that England is at the present juncture shouldering the responsibility of food administrator and distributor for the greater part of Europe itself. It will take years for her pre-war markets such as Denmark, Belgium and Holland to develop to anything approaching their normal capacity. It will take time too for the Dominions to switch their exports from the various military points to which they have been despatched to the Motherland. Urgent talks are now proceeding between the British Prime Minister and President Truman on the subject, until their outcome is known it would be wise, in the words of Mr Winston Churchill to suspend judgment.