Evening star., 1943-11-12
Beyond Bookkeeping

| Beyond Bookkeeping
Although a full and detailed ac-
counting is not possible at this time,
and will in fact never be possible, 1t
is clear from the Presidents latest
report to Congress and from the new
British White Paper that lease lend
operations are far from being a one
way procedure in which the United
States gives everything and receives
nothing.
Going into the subject more deeply
than does the Presidents report
UNDERSTANDABLE so in view of the
many loose and harsh things said
about Britain and lease-lend - the
White Paper asserts that reciprocal
aid from. the United Kingdom to the
United States in terms of cash ex-
penditures, already totals we'll over
billion dollars, with $871 900 900
specifically accounted for. 1t points
out, moreover, that such aid will
hereafter include raw materials and
bulk supplies of foodstuffs which we
have heretofore bought outright be-
cause Britain needed our dollar re-
ceipts to meet its heavy obligations
on pre-lease-lend war contracts in
the United States
In this connection, the White
Paper reminds us that despite the
help they have received under lease
lend, the British have spent six bill
lion dollars in cash in the United
States for supplies of all kinds since
the start of the war. 1t reports, fur
ther, that in addition to the recip-
rocal aid extended to us, they have
sent to Russia and other allies aid
valued at more than billion and a
half dollars. All told, it says, "up to
the middle of 1943 the total burden
assumed by the United Kingdom, in
the form of payments made to other
members of the United Nations
in excess of sums received from
them, amounted to over nine billion
dollars"
When we keep in mind such figures
as these and when we make due
allowances for the differences be-
tween the United Kingdom and the
United States in national income,
size OF population, wage standards,
price structures and similar factors,
we get much fairer picture of Brit
aims contribution and are less apt
to describe its reciprocal aid as puny
In relation to ours. Actually, as the
White Paper temperately argues,
this aid is not nearly so small as
lot of people suppose, the fact being
that it represents 10 per cent of the
total British war expenditure, where
as our own lease-lend outlays up to
last May represented IL per cent of
the total American war expenditure.
The truth is, Of course, that there
can never be complete and precise
accounting of lease-lend and reverse
lease-lend in terms of hard cash. A
price tag cannot be placed on what
the British did in the early days of
the war when they stood alone
against the enemy. Nor can one be
placed on what the Chinese and the
Russians and others among the
United Nations have DONE The ac-
complishments of the human spirit,
the sacrifices of the brave, the shin
ing deeds of thousands of nameless
men on the bloody battlefields of
the world - none OF this can be
evaluated by the bookkeepers or
counted off in the coin of the mar
ket place.
In his report to Congress, Presi-
dent Roosevelt plainly suggests that
some lease-lend items will be be-
yond settlement when peace comes
because there simply is mo physical
or financial standard of value by
which we can measure them" The
same point is even more strongly
suggested in the British White Paper.
1t means that as the Senate now
prepares to investigate the subject,
neither that body nor the American
people as whole should ever for a
moment lose sight of the fact that
forces far more precious and far less
tangible than dollars and cents are
the truly decisive factors in the WIN
ming of this war.