SCOPE OF MONETARY PLAN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 199, 20 May 1944, Page 7

SCOPE OF MONETARY PLAN

Position Of Britain (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 18.. Asked by Mr. E. Shinwell (Labour) iu the House of Commons whether, in further negotiations with the United States and other Governments he would, stipulate that there must be nothing in the international monetary plan which would prevent Britain from entering into reciprocal trade agreements with other countries, either in the monetary or the economic field, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Anderson, said he thought it would have been better if. in his statement last week, he had used the words “reciprocal agreements” in stead of “reciprocal trade agreements.” He had had particularly' in mind the monetary field, since the monetary plan could not impose any restriction outside that field. For the transifionary period wide latitude for reciprocal agreements in the monetary field was expressly reserved by Article 10. At a later. stage, when Britain was able to accept in full the obligations of the scheme, there would be nothing to prevent arrangements such as those governing what was known as the sterling area before the war. It was on this understanding, explicitly conveyed to American experts, that the British experts approved the plan, and if there should be any doubt on the point the plan would certainly have to be amended. Payment Problem. The Earl of Selborne, Minister of Economic Warfare, told members of the American Chamber of Commerce in London today that the business men of the world, who had to create post-war prosperity’, would find scorched Europe a problem. “The problem will not be to find a market for what you have to offer, but to find somebody who will be able to pay _ for what you have to sell.” he said. "Hint problem must be solved, and if. we are to rebuild human prosperity it will require the joint effort and co-operation of the United Nations, working together in peace as they have been working together to solvo the issues of war. “I look forward to a continuance ot that happy co-operation, indeed, an extension of it to our other great allies, so that when the time comes to rebuild the devastated areas of Europe and Asia we shall be united in a common purpose, with a single mind, and achieve the same victory we are going to achieve on the battlefield.”