Evening star., 1945-03-11

pFoOLems III ttdL oeu.t
Americans as whole have little ap-
preciation of the significance Of trade
between the Middle East and the United
States. Judged even by prewar stand
ards. that trade, though admittedly far
less than thesvolume of our trade with
Europe and less than that with South
America, went into many millions of
dollars. The war, however, will make
or can make, enormous differences in
both the volume and character of trade,
provided we are wise and courageous
enough to push our opportunities in this
area.
Apart from considerations of profit
that may attach to our trade relation
ships, developing commercial relation
ships with the Middle East has an i'm
portance all its own. That territory,
stretching from Libya to Afghanistan, is
as strategically important as any area
In the world
1t has for centuries been the pathway
between east and west, between Europe
and India and China. It's security Is
thus vital to England and Russia. But
1t is equally vital to us. To reach China
from the east we must go by this route.
And from the standpoint of air routes
Cairo is vital focal point.
Trade Held Vital.
Any true concern with security has to
60 beyond the provisions of adequate
military forces. 1t must provide foun-
dations upon which political tranquility
can be assured. These foundations are
primarily commerce-the flow of goods
and the development of resources suf-
fcient to meet growing demands for
better subsistence. In the Middle East
this is especially important. 1t needs
both foreign goods, foreign capital and
foreign markets, if 1t would lift itself
out of that atmosphere of want and
poverty that spreads distrust, hate and
war
Again that area contains the greatest
reservoir of oil that the world has yet
seen. American nationals now have a
very substantial interest in that reser-
voir. Oil is as important to the worlds
economy or to national survival as
bread. To lose our interest in that res
ervoir of Oil or to fail to conserve and
develop it is almost unthinkable This
alone forces us to develop a policy
toward the Middle East, and leads us as
a matter of necessity to think in terms
of closer and stronger commercial ties
with that area.
Before the war our share of the i'm
ports to the Middle East was far down
the list. Great Britain headed the list,
but the significant exporting countries
were Germany, Italy, Japan and France.
The war has cut off these countries as
. source Of supplies. And it will be
long time, if ever, before japanese tex
tiles, German motor cars, drugs and
German steel, or italian machinery
find any export markets.
Britain and United States Fill Gaps.
Meanwhile. though shipping has nee
essarily curtailed all imports to the
Middle East, Great Britain and the
United States have moved in to fill the
gaps in Middle Eastern trade brought
about by the disappearance of these
sources of supply. Today we supply as
much-and sometimes more-than Great
Britain does to this area.
But what we supply now is no meas
ure of what we could supply, provided
barriers are not erected against us.
The quality of our goods-especially
our fabricated products-has captured
the imagination of the Middle East. 1t
Is American cars, machines, planes,
aadgets, that they want, not those of
other nations. And they are right to
want them because we can make these
things better and should make them
cheaper than any other nation
Secondly, the Middle East is seeking
to industrialize itself after this war.
Egyptian leaders, for example, realize
that they cannot have a broad increase
in the standard of living if seven n-tenths
of an acre is to continue to be the aver
age land holding of their peasants. They
must turn from an agricultural to a
semi-industrial economy. If they sue
ceed in doing SO, they will lift the
purchasing power of the average man
and increase enormously the potential
tiles of this market.
Grow Rich From War.
Thirdly, most Middle Eastern coun-
tries have become rich in terms of
money during the war. Vast military
expenditures have been made in Egypt.
Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Persia by the
British the Russians the French and
ourselves. Because commodities have
been scarce it has been impossible as
yet to convert these balances into goods.
They exist only as credits and, unfortu-
nately from our standpoint, as sterling
credits.
This dependency of the Middle East
on sterling poses one of the great bar
rlers to American trade Its richest
markets today are members of the sterl-
ing area. All dollars that they earn are
turned into London. London in return
engages to provide enough dollars and
other hard currencies necessary to
finance those essential civilian goods
that cannot be imported from sterling
countries and must therefore be i'm
ported from countries like the United
States.
That policy-so long as it continues
places few if any limitations upon i'm
ports from the British Empire but tends
to restrict imports from the United
States to class of goods, deemed pres
emily unavailable in sterling countries,
and of class regarded by an ultimate
British authority as Essential