WORLD BANK SCHEME

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 238, 5 July 1944, Page 4

WORLD BANK SCHEME

Helping Reconstruction Of Nations LORD KEYNES PUTS CASE (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received July 4, 7.45 p.m.) NEW’YORK, July 3. Lord Keynes, the noted economist and adviser to the British Treasury, addressing the world bank commission at the international monetary conference at Bretton Woods, outlined a plan for the establishment of a 10,900 million dollar international bank for reconstruction and to guarantee international loans. He described the scheme as a sound fundamental contribution to the post-war task of rebuilding the world, which would promote expansion but not inflation. He added that the plan originated in the United States Treasury. Lord Keynes explained that most, loans would come from the United States, which was tlie world’s largest creditor nation, but the risks would be shared by all the member countries in proportion to their capacity. He urged speedy consideration of the plan so that the bank could be ready at the end of the war, enabling the liberated countries to proceed witli their reconstruction and re-enter world trade as quickly as possible. He warned that delays might prevent the establishment of orderly, government and postpone the return of Allied soldiers to tbeir homelands. The bank programme is entirely separate from the proposals for an international monetary fund, which are also under consideration at Bretton Woods, but both plans are closely related to the broad United Nations programme of postwar economic co-operation. The “New York Times” correspondent says that Lord Keynes’s emphasis on the bank’s soundness and American origin-is regarded as an attempt to counteract criticisms that both the bank and the fund proposals are of British origin cleverly designed to entrap the United States into playing the role of Santa Claus after the war.