The Wilmington morning star., 1945-12-17
Anglo-American Credit
Clements Long Friendship

NeHICISkO AO
!" EDITORS NOTE: - The au-
thor of the following dispatch
has tor many years been a
distinguished foreign corre-
spondent and commentator.
Nv HENRY NOBLE HALL
written for NEA Service
NEW YORK, Dec. 16.-The
Anelo-American economic and
financial agreement does some
thing more than open credit 10
Britain of $3.50, 100000 and extend
fine for the payment OF $3.50, O0O,-
900 for lend-lease goods received
after VI day, installations and
other claims.
It perpetuates in the winning OF
the peace the partnership that for
won the war, and lays the basis
q Magma Charta OF international
trade that will do away with the
restrictions which in the past nave
hampered world progress and
sown the seeds of war.
When lend-lease ended, Britain
anproached America to obtain a
six billion dollar non-interest-bear-
inc loan to enable her to recon-
vert to peacetime production and
b,1v abroad the new industrial
equipment and raw materials she
must have. This because in her
fight for freedom, Britain had sac
rificed most of her foreign trade
and all of her foreign holdings. The
latter were sold to America to buy
tools of war, prior to 1912 when
lend-lease went into effect.
TO REBUILD INDUSTRY
- So the result of the long drawn
out negotiations will be disappoint-
ing to many in Britain who be-
lieve that anything less that four
billion dollar credit will make Bril-
tain's recovery less rapid than the
interest of both countries demands.
British officials assure us not one
dollar of the $3.50, 100000 will be
used for social experiment or Ia
Dor reforms in Britain, or paid as
compensation by t h Government
to private industries it may decide
to take over. Every penny OF the
loan and more will be needed to
equip Britain's peace industries
with modern machine tools, they
assert.
When war broke out, Britain con-
verted her entire industry to war,
but before the war, as already
stated in the Balfour Report, Bri-
tain's peace-time industrial equip :
ment had not been kept up to
date. It is now imperative that it
be completely renewed and
modernized.
Ninety-five per cent Of all tex
tile looms in Britain are still
hand looms of the horse and bug
gy age, whereas in Massachusetts
the looms are 100 per cent auto
matte. So an American textile
worker produces 10 times as much
as a Britisher. Coal mining in Eng
land is just as antiquated and,
when the Government takes over
the mines, modern coal cutting
machinery will have to be install
ed because today the output of a
British coal miner is less than one.
fourth of what an American pro-
duces.
MACHINERY OBSOLETE
Only by paying mere living
wages could British industry sell
goods produced with such wornout
and obsolete machinery. A nation S
progress depends upon the quaint
ty nd the perfection of its tools,
and once Rritain's industry is
equipped with modern machinery,
it will be possible to pay higher
wages and create a home market
for all the innumerable labor saw
ing devices which make the lot of
the American housewife so much
easier than that Of her British sis
ter.
But important to the United
States as is the economic and fl
nancial restoration of Britain,
which shares with America the
burden Of making democracy safe
in the world, the agreement fur
ther covers long range CONNER
cial policies i n the broad sense,
embracing the fields of trade-bar-
riers and discrimination, policies
in respect to commodities in world
surplus, cartelS. an internationa al