LOANS AND THE FOUR FREEDOMS
Hull, Rep. Merlin
Loans And The Four Freedoms By REP. MERLIN HULL Washington, V. C. AFTER nearly three months of conferences, British and American negotiators have agreed that the United States is to loan Britain...
...But the London air-lines objected...
...THOSE who may believe that selfish interests in our own and other nations are about to stifle their avarice in the interest of world-wide good-will may be a bit shocked over new developments from day-to-day...
...The loan will be independent of former commitments, such as the granting to France of a few hundred millions of surplus war commodities, some of 'which were used to suppress the rebellion of the Syrian people who were endeavoring to throw off French control of their country...
...France now is fighting the natives of Indo-China, a former French colony ceded by the Vichy Government to Japan...
...So in steps the British Air Ministry, proposing to reduce the number of plane-landings in England, by Pan-American planes, unless the fare was increased...
...The fare was too low in the opinion of their air-line moguls...
...This new loan was made through the Export-Import Bank, a Government-financed corporation set up to encourage foreign trade and help our industries sell their products abroad...
...The time required is from 15 to 20 hours...
...World trade routes by air are among the disturbing factors working contrariwise...
...The Pan-American company, which operates between Washington, New York, and other eastern cities and London, England, fixed a trans-Atlantic fare at $292 one way...
...As yet, governmental accord to that policy is wanting...
...The agreement may be high-pressured through, as has been done before...
...Like all such international confabs, this one was held behind closed doors and the people were not permitted to know what was transpiring until the final agreement was reached on the methods of transferring billions of the taxpayers' money to the gracious care of foreign bankers and politicians, and at a time when the British are spending substantial sums to put down independence movements...
...There, as in some other colonial possessions, our Lend-Lease war supplies are being used to shoot the Four Freedoms out of the minds of native populations...
...The British will have 50 years to pay it back...
...MERLIN HULL Washington, V. C. AFTER nearly three months of conferences, British and American negotiators have agreed that the United States is to loan Britain four billion, four hundred million dollars...
...Pan-American was informed that it must increase its rate by $100 per passenger...
...Most of the travel was by "rich Americans" anyway...
...The strategy seems to be to push for Congressional agreement before the Christmas holiday recess...
...The big airline companies, some of which have national monopolies, seem to look forward to an international cartel in transportation which will levy all the tribute the traffic will bear to swell profits and increase salaries already high...
...So, Pan-American has accepted the decree, and all Americans, rich or poor, will pay the increased rate...
...That interference with the trans-ocean passenger traffic practically would put Pan-American off the air and give all the traffic to the London lines at the higher rate...
...The big countries, our own and the others, seem to believe that the airways will be profitable...
...in other words, to give Congress about 10 days to approve a lengthy agreement that was three months in the making...
...Pan-American is doing big business in both directions...
...It objected, the former fare proving profitable enough...
...THE Administration made shorter work of loaning 550 million dollars to France, which got $1,600,000,-000 under the last allotments of Lend-Lease...
Vol. 9 • December 1945 • No. 50
