Committee Advises 27 Per Cent. Cut

Chronicle (Levin), 5 June 1948, Page 5

Committee Advises 27 Per Cent. Cut

( N.Z.P.A. —

, Reuter .

Copyright)

Eeceived Friday, 7 p.m. WASHINGTON, June 3. The House Appropriations Committee, in reporting the Bill carrying funds for the Alarshall Plan and other foreign.. aid programmes, recommended.a cut 5 v 27 per cent. from the |^gure' .^r'opoSed by the Administratiom. TkeJ -measu-re liow provides a suiu of 5,9SQ,710^2?S dollars for global assistance in'the 35month period ending July 31, .1.940, *, whereas President Truman had asked for 6, 553, 710, 22S dollars for the 12 months ending April 30, 1949. The committee cut the amount for European aid to 4,000,000,000 dollars a slash '' ■245,000,000 dollars from the fighfe asked. and said it was dissatisfied witli, the progress of the rehabilitation of Germany. The committee said that since July 1, 1945, United States had provided foreign .aid totalling .18,182,000,000 dollars much of which "hab been wasted." The committee approved of 400,000,000 dollars of the 463,000,000 requested for aid to China, and agreed to the Adininistration'9 request for 424,000,000 dollars for relief to Japan and Ryukus and 107,000,000 in Korea. It completely erased the 150,000,000 dollars for Japanese" economic recon- . struction which had General AlacArthur's support, and expressed misgivings about further aid to China. When informed of the- committee 's action the Economic Cooperation Administrator (Air. Paul Holfman) promptly requested the reinstatement of the full amount of 4,245,000,000 dollars for European aid. He said: "The less money we have fhe'less recovery we can expect. "

The Appropriations Committee stipulated that wool bought under . the Economic Cooperation Administration programmes should eome from stock al present held by the -Commodity Gredit Corporation instead of being bought in foreign eountries. The chairman of the committee (Air. John Taber) said E.C.A. had proposed to buy wool from other sources than C.C.C. at priees higher than the 42 cents per lb. C.C.C. paid for its stoelc of 240,000,000 lb. The committee also stipulated that E.C.A. should not buy goods anywh«re at prices higher than those in the United States. •Explaining the committee 's reckuctions Afr. Taber said he was satisfied that E.C.A. could operate for fifteen months on the money alloeated, and aceomplisli |>yoper rehabilitation. The committee had eliminated one item' oi 28S,000,000 Cijollars to meet the balance of exchange 'between the particlpating eountries and the United States^ be ea use the ;expenditure of such a sum would have meant that the United States would have been payfng debts due to itself. h Mr. T&ber said another reason for the reduct'ions was that -European grain crops were estimated to be nearlv at prewar levels and aceordingly iargescale^relief should not be needed. " Any kind of prudent management should provide for the real needs o± these eountries without tlie enormous expenditures f which'-' «had been proposed." Mr. Taber said any unbiased analvsis of European production figures and E.C.A. estimatefe "put a doubt.- about rlie foreign aid yorogramme 's real aims. If it is E.C.A. 's purpose t.o raise production in the pavticipating countrie.^ to a level far beyond prewar, we are tackling a project which has been grossly misrepresented to the American public."