EWS OF THE WEEK
nit time0
appearseiltpr t, the terms of the Anglo-
American loan twelve weeks of har The sum involved are availabl
will Dagalkobe'.* published, and the results of and horse dealing will be known. ,000,000, of which some nine-tenths urposes and one-tenth for payment for Lease-Lend goods still in process of delivery. The total sum is rather lower than was originally hoped for, but slightly higher than at one time was expected. The rate of interest is 2 per cent., which again is rather higher than our negotiators may have hoped for. But throughout the negotiations the Americans have been im- pressed by the need to demonstrate to Congress that they have driven not merely a good but a hard bargain ; and they will still have a stiff fight to convince Congress that they have not been out-smarted. On the other hand, it seems likely that the United States have insisted on fewer concessions in economic policy than was thought at one time ; if they concern chiefly measures to permit members of the sterling area to purchase freely in the United States, then on general grounds it is difficult to criticise them, so long as they are introduced with sufficient regard to our temporary diffi- culties at this particularly difficult stage of the transition period from war to peace. But, of course, the most urgent aim of the United States has been to secure British ratification of the Bretton Woods monetary plan. Their desire for our ratification has assumed considerable urgency towards the end of the negotiations, as the plan will lapse unless Great Britain, among other countries, ratifies it by December 31st. But ratification of the plan can hardly be regarded as a concession on our part. Refusal to ratify the plan, which is the keystone of America's efforts to achieve a general stabilisation of currencies and a restoration of world trade, would involve us in an economic struggle in which, with our present resources, we should have little prospect of success. But, again, the effects of the plan depend on whether America will use her economic and financial power with the same regard for the difficulties of other countries which she expects them to show for hers.
