10 JANUARY 1941, Page 3

Why America Should " Buy British "

Mr. Oliver Lyttelton, President of the Board of Trade, in a broadcast to Canada and the United States last Sunday, appealed to a principle which President Roosevelt himself clearly enunciated the following day—that materials sent from America to Britain can only in the long run be paid for with materials. That is a basic fact in international exchange, and the ignoring of it in the past has led to sad misunderstanding. But it is not munitions only that we are receiving from America. Mr. Lyttelton reminded his American listeners that Britain buys from the American continent far more cotton, grain, meat, coffee, copper and nickel than any other foreign country, and that we can only create dollar balances with which to pay for these imports if America buys British goods. His broadcast was, then, an appeal to consumers on the other side of the Atlantic to buy more British goods, in the knowledge that to do so will help our export trade to pay for imports from America. Such assistance is war assistance scarcely less vital than the sending of aeroplanes. The greater readiness of the American public to appreciate these simple economic principles and to act upon them is not only helping us through our immediate war-time difficulties, but also, as Mr. Lyttelton suggests, is of good augury for post-war co-operation in supply- ing the needs of a world that will be hungry for goods.