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Chronicle (Levin), 6 March 1948, Page 5

Received Thursdav, 7 p.m. LONDON Alnrch 4. Britain, on Mareh i, exhausted her £937,500,0(10 loan from the ITiited States wlieu slie withdrew her tinui £24,000,000. Originallv expected to last Britain from three to iive years, ihe loan has hebl on t only 191 months. Britain lmthns consuined her eredit at an avorag-' raio of nearly £50,000.000 nionthly. The preinature exhaustion of th-> eredit is atti'ibuted in Loudon to thremai n clailses, say.> the Financial Times. I'irstly, tliere was a deterioration m Britain 's terins of trade; secondly, ihe attcinjd to make sterling con\ erljbl.•bet orc cauJidence hud been restored; and thirdlv the lop-sideil developmeiu of British trade with the hani eurrenev area. The loan agieeinent signed l/v Presideut Truiuau 011 July lo, 104(5, pro vided tlvat Britain nnist bcgin repaving the ltioney 011 Decetnber 31, .10.11, and coinplete vearJy paynicnls* over a 50year period unless the ITiited S,tates grants waivers. Sir , Stafford Cripps said tlie American loan was "drawn but not exhausted.'' When the loan was exhausted gold would have to l»e sold to olitain dollars when he needed them he added. '