WAR RESERVES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1939, Page 6

WAR RESERVES

THE AMERICAN BARTER PROPOSAL CONTENTIONS BY SENATOR BYRNES. NO INJURY TO AUSTRALIA OR CANADA. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) (Received This Day, Noon.) WASHINGTON, April 11. Senator Byrnes, in a statement to the Associated Press, disclaimed any intention to injure Australia, Canada and other normal suppliers of the British wheat market by his barter plan. He commented: “The proposal has no connection with ordinary commercial transactions. Normal markets and operations should not be affected. Our Australian and Canadian friends should hot be injured. The proposal is to store all wheat, cotton and other goods under an agreement not to enter commercial channels for at least five years. With wheat particularly, and also somewhat with rubber, there would be deterioration which would necessitate a portion of the stores being consumed yearly in order to avoid loss, but an equal amount would be replaced in storage. Therefore the stored stocks would remain the same. It should .be remembered that the proposed stocks would be identical with the stocks of military materials we already hold in reserve, such as ammunition. That also deteriorates, but if we replace a regular amount equal to What is withdrawn for consumption yearly, we do not disturb regular business. I See no way in which the plan would affect regular consumption demands in Britain or elsewhere. I see no effect upon normal commercial operations. It is only a matter of transferring surpluses from a location where they are of limited value at present to places where they may be of considerable value in the event of an emergency.” Other officials conceded that Australia and Canada might lose to the extent that United States substitute for them as a supplier of at least part of the British reserves, but contended that neither Australia nor Canada could regard the move as disadvantageous to their normal business.