Show NATIONAL AFFAIRS reviewed by CARTER FIELD indirect loans to britain likely before congress is asked to act united states busy with plans to help britain meet serious ship shortage bell service sen let washington WASHING TONIt it seems able now that this government will be giving britain credits indirectly or by going round robin hoods barn bam in order to avoid violating the johnson or neutrality acts before the direct onslaught is made in congress to clear the way to straight out loans despite the emphatic declaration of secretary of the treas treasury u ry henry jr that the loan to china is not a precedent it may well turn out to be a pattern the eventual following of which will result in technically indirect but actually very direct loans to britain there is already a scheme on foot to finance with american dollars the sale of beet beef and grain from the argentine republic to britain this w would be worked rk ed out assuming it is t s approved in this f fashion argentina would ship worth of beef and grain to britain S she he would then have a credit for that amount in london uncle sam is arix anxious ious to make goodwill good will loans in south america so he lends argentina As collateral for this loan jesse jones if it is money that is to be used or henry if stabilization funds are to be employed takes that credit argentina has in london ENGLAND RECEIVES CREDITS so the whole thing winds up this way london has worth of needed supplies argentina has sold worth of exports she was anxious to sell uncle sam has a note for given him by the argentine secured by british endorsement which of course means merely that john bull owes uncle sam some color is given to the reasonableness of the prediction that this sort of thing will be done by the pains taken by the administration to gain approval on capitol hill for the chinese loan recently jesse jones stated publicly that he considered great britain a good risk and 10 on the same day dav sen hiram W r johnson arriving in california said that the administration was mad to get into the war at the earliest possible moment of course that depends upon what one means by getting into the war if you ask the germans the united states is in the war now and if any useful purpose would be served from the german standpoint the nazis would declare war on us there may have been such a situation sometime before in history but it seems to escape most students ol of past wars BRITISH SHIPPING SUFFERS seriousness of the british shipping situation is causing all sorts of plan rung ning by the united states government in the hope of working out 1 ways and means of meeting the problem incidentally the german embassy in washington is devoting considerable effort to keeping 1 in informed as to what new plans tor for aiding britain are under consideration the germans do not know lust just what to do about it but they are massing data as though they were about to undertake a publicity barrage if this war should ever reach the note writing stage that preceded american ame rican entry in the last war the germans will have plenty of items to write into their diplomatic missives ijen the big 1 question quest lon at the moment is aps due to the surprise sprung by the 1 germans in playing paving such h havoc with a convoy As a matter of fact this f problem has as been been ap n parent naf t to observers from the opening of the war even though the cess in attacking te convoys something which w was not accomplished in in the last war was not anticipated but these dispatches a year ago aeo pointed out that the biggest need of the british before the clr war was over would be ships ships to cary carry v vital supplies and foodstuffs to britain briton the british planning for the emer gency was far from perfect it seems for example that after munich something should have been done to get more acres in britain to producing foodstuffs it was re e SV healed by the london n do times lm some e time back that there were more arro than acres which 1 had ad K been producing food toward the end of the last war which were NOT pro food this time thred million acres will produce a as lot of food will feed adte a lot of people even if poorly cultivated cultivate ed the whole thing ties in with airplanes sa of course if the british ariti nad had equaled the germans in air power att there would now T have been en no hsuch such threat to the shipping that supplies the tight little island ta 1 l |