AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21374, 19 March 1941, Page 5

AFTER-WAR PROBLEMS

PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME PREPARATIONS IN AMERICA HUGE EXPENDITURE PLANNED (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 17 The National Resources Board has recommended a six-year post-emer-gency public works programme, involving the possible expenditure of billions of dollars, to stabilise employment when the operations of the defence industries cease or are curtailed. The board’s plan was placed before Congress by President Roosevelt, who, in an accompanying message, said: •‘National defence is more than the mobilisation of the nation’s armed strength. It requires long-range planning for the post-defence period and national welfare. Equally must we focus public thought on the ideals and objectives of our national life. We must seek a wider understanding of the possibilities for that future which we are prepared to defend.”

The six-year plan is described as the shell of public construction projects quickly available in time of need. Big Sale Announced The first fruits of Sir Edward Peacock’s mission to the United States on behalf of the Treasury to examine the possibility of obtaining dollar exchange by the sale of British assets is seen in a Treasury announcement that the bulk of the holding of Courtaulds, Limited, in the American Viscose Corporation has been sold on the Treasury behalf to a syndicate of United States investment bankers. The holding amounts to 448,000 shares of the corporation. “The purchase price,” states the Treasury, “will be 90 per cent of the proceeds of the public issue which it is intended to make shortly in the United States, and an immediate minimum payment of 40,000,000 dollars (about £10,000,000) will be made on account of the purchase. “The sale of this valuable holding to American interests is evidence of the determination of the British Government to use every possible means of self-help at a time when it is receiving from the Government of the United States the measures of assistance set out in Mr Roosevelt’s great speech last Saturday.”

In arriving at the transaction Sir Edward Peacock acted with the full knowledge of the United States Administration.