The Dominion MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 1942. LEASE-LEND TRANSACTIONS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 285, 31 August 1942, Page 4

The Dominion MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 1942. LEASE-LEND TRANSACTIONS

According to reports from Washington the Prime Minister, during his visit to the American capital, “is expected tojiign new l.easeLend agreements formalizing the reciprocal aid New Zealand has been giving to American troops.” These agreements- are evidently in line with the proposals now being discussed by Lord Halifax and Mr. Cordell Hull, “designed to provide more specifically for the reverse aid' which Britain 'is furnishing to the American troops in England and Northern Ireland.” This lease-leiid plan, something altogether new in international relations, was originally designed by the American authorities for the purpose of providing certain countries by sa e. transfer, exchange, lease, lend or otherwise” with any defence article. These were the steps taken to make the United States the arsenal or the democracies, although at that time not a combatant nation. The sponsors of the scheme went far beyond the bounds oi benevolent neutrality. Assistance was to be given by means of supplies and also by services, for provision was made for the lepan o allied warships and merchantmen in American yards. The plan was described by Mr; Churchill as “the most unsordid” ever devised, and it did not make any specified provision for “reverse aid. But the entry of the United States into the war made it possible for some allied countries to assist America, and New Zealand is one'of them. It can make available, in the South Pacific area and perhaps fuitnei afield,.certain supplies and services and these will on-set. at least to some extent, the help received. ■ ’ It is essential that the transactions should be on a definite, and mutually acceptable basis, and this will be incorporated in whatever agreements Mr. Fraser may finalize while in Washington, subject presumably, to ratification by Parliament.- There has been surprisingly little reference to the lease-lent! arrangements by either the NewZealand Government or members of Parliament. At. a recent function Mr. Fraser said that the plan meant that the United States would produce and give arms and supplies to the countries engaged in the struggle against the Axis Powers ‘ and would consider the matter of payment after the battle.” For that reason lease-lend tiansactions are not taken into account in the British Budget, but they ate here In the Financial Statement which he brought down early in the current year was an item for £10.000,000 “to be financed under the Lease-Lend procedure.” It was classified with the borrowings from the British Government, under the memorandum of security which appear in the War Expenses Account. It will be most satisfactory to have the procedure on a reciprocal basis defined and its implications explained, for while a great deal will depend upon post-war settlements any balance against the Dominion must be regarded as a contingent liability, and its extent should be known by the community upon which, in the last resort, the responsibility will rest.