PROPOSAL WELCOMED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1939, Page 7

PROPOSAL WELCOMED

EXCHANGE OF WAR MATERIALS.

BRITAIN & UNITED STATE-S. NEGOTIATIONS IN PROGRESS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 4. Announcing in the House of Commons that negotiations had been opened with the United States for the exchange of materials which would be useful in case of an outbreak of war, the Prime Minister (Mr Chamberlain) said: — “The United States recently inquired whether the British Government would be prepared to consider the exchange of certain raw materials required as a strategic reserve by the United States for other commodities of which the United States has surpluses and which would be a useful addition to our own stores against the contingency of war. . “The British Government is fully alive to the importance of this suggestion, and has replied that, while fully sharing the United States’ objections to attempt to substitute barter for the ordinary process of international trade, it agrees that in the special circumstances of the present time an exchange of materials which would not enter into normal commerce is not open to the same objections, provided world prices are not thereby increased. “Britain has expressed its readiness to enter into discussions as to the means by which the obvious practical difficulties which might arise in such a transaction should be surmounted. Negotiations’ have accordingly been opened with the United States.”