HELP FOR BRITAIN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 352, 22 March 1946, Page 5

HELP FOR BRITAIN

Sir.-Recent references in The Listener on the subject of help for Britain remind’ me that I read the other day that Joseph P. Kennedy had advocated that the proposed loan from the United States to Britain for the purpose of fostering British purchases of American goods, should take the form of a straight-out gift of 3,750 million dollars. The idea of assisting Britain is doubtless a worthy one; but for the moment I am not concerned with that. The feature which really intrigues me in the whole affair is a certain idiosyncrasy of finance. From the American viewpoint, to be quite frank, the paramount motive is to keep the wheels of American industry turning; with the objective that the receipts from Britain for goods supplied should recoup Americans for labour expended and resources exported, and provide a profit margin essential for the

fostering, if not for the flourishing, of American industry. This being so, the question that strikes oné at once is, would it not be better for the Americans to give this money directly to their industrialists, workmen, farmers and miners, who would then possess it, and be in a position to flourish to their hearts’ content, and without having to sweat or to deplete natural resources? In other words, why is it, that in order to flourish upon money which you already possess, it is mecessary first to part with it-either by way of gift or by loan which possibly would never be repaid-and to re-possess it gradually at the cost of painful labour and loss of resources? Is it that the world’s financial system is what we have so often been told that it is-an utter farce?

RUHTRA

(Wellington).