Applying the Atlantic Charter
An agreement, the text of which was published on Wednesday, asben made between the United States and Great Britain, stretching far beyond the present widening vistas of enlightened trade relations between the two countries and between both of rnem and the rest of the world. It springs out of the Lend-Lease Act of March nth, 1941, which itself was one of the most mag- Iladullous and far-sighted pieces of legislation promoted by the acIdstvelt administration, enabling America to pour supplies into dui Country without imposing on it a burden of unredeemable debt. The new agreement, while containing certain ci.. Ises to Prevent abuses . under the Lend-Lease arrangement, not only defers the final determination of the "benefits" to be provided bY tit' United Kingdom in return for help received to an early convenient date after the war, but lays down that the terms shall be such as "not to burden commerce between the two countries, but to promote mutually advantageous economic rela- tions between them and the betterment of world-wide economic relations." Moreover, the Agreement prescribes joint action "open to participation by all other countries of like mind," to promote production, employment, the exchange and consumption of goods, the elimination of discriminatory treatment in inter- national commerce, and the reduction of tariffs. It also binds the parties to concert economic measures to implement the Atlantic Charter. Mr. Wendell Willkie has given his blessing to this Agreement, describing it as "the most significant and beneficial understanding which has been made between nations in the last many years." Here at last is something completely tangible to be put among Allied war aims—a declaration of Anglo-American economic policy binding them to concert measures to remove the greatest obstacles to trade and prosperity that have blocked the way to a real peace for the last quarter of a century—and this through an understanding open to all who care to associate themselves with it.
