Evening star., 1942-07-07
Peace Is Objective
OF Lease-Lend Aid,
Acheson Declares
U.S.. Does Not Seek Return
In Gosh or Goods,
He Says at Institute
BY the Associated Press.

CHARLOTTESVILLE. Va, July
TN return for lease-lend aid to
their Allies, Americans want a new
world in which man can live fully
and at peace" rather than gold, or
weapons or other goods, Dean G.
Acheson, Assistant Secretary of
State, believes.
Speaking before the formal open
ing of Institute of Public Affairs at
the University of Virginia last night,
Mr.. Acheson recalled the failure of
international debt settlements after
the last war and emphasized the
determination of the United States
Government to avoid similar eco
nomic mistakes after this one.
The aid Americans give in this
war no doubt will be greater than
the aid they receive, he conceded,
because American resources are
greater and the drain on them has
been less. But, he asked:
do you wish an accounting of
benefits given and received on the
theory that they represent mutual
debts, to be computed in dollars.
and set off against each other to
measure balance owed in money?
Do you wish to set on one side the
value of a tank, its guns and am
munition, and on the other side
| an appraisal of those who died in
it under a desert sun? What is the
equation between the planes sent
to Russia and those figures in the
snow before Leningrad and Mos
| coW?"
Cash Settlements Not Desired.
Americans do not want that sort
OF accounting, he said, or even to
think about it very much.
Neither do they want money
more gold buried at Fort Knox"
They do not want money. because,
OF all settlements, we know that it
is the most impossible and most
destructive.
And how about replacement in
kind of the planes. tanks and guns
sent to Allies on all fronts?
so long as the need exists" he
said. "tnis, broadly, is the function
OF lease-lend fro our Allies to US.
But when the need ends do we wish
to require the continuation of arma-
ment production? Or if we require
some arms. do we wish to rely
upon others for them? This is the
very opposite of American policy in
the past, which has led the fight for
the reduction of ornaments.
do We want goods? In the past
we have fought any such suggestion
with the fury Of an untamed bron-
cho. Our present aid cannot
be repaid in goods. To attempt it
would be to destroy us ALL"
Answer Is Peace.
What is it, then, that Americans
want in return for this aid?
IF you ask yourselves and your
neighbors,' Mr. Acheson said the
answer will not be money, or to get
back the guns you have sent abroad
or to get goods, except in the course
of trade. The answer will be that
you want chance to live fully and
in peace. You want a world in
which some half madman and his
bigoted crew on the other side of the
earth will not bring down your lives
and your houses about your ears
once every quarter century.
You want opportunity job in
which you can use your powers. job
which may not end any Saturday
one that will provide the material
and spiritual means for life which
is not mere existence. You want a
| system where the inevitable hazards
of life do not fall on those least able
to bear them, where education and a
chaince to Use, 1t are open to talent
Thomas R. Henry, science editor
of The Star and the North Amer
ican Newspaper Alliance. and Ste
phen McDonough. Associated Press
science writer, participated today in
a panel which discussed science anc