More in grief .
Sir: Sir Denis Brogan (27 Febru- ary) rejects the contention I put forward in the Times that it is Britain's moral duty to repay a fraction of the financial assistance received from the United States by assuming full responsibility for the losses arising from the Rolls-Royce contract. He argues that I have failed to allow for 'the impact of two great wars on our balance of Payments'.
But, after all, more than a half- century has passed since the first world war and more than a quar- ter-century even since the second world war. Does Sir Denis Brogan believe that the impact of the two Wars on Britain's balance of pay- ments justify her to play in per- Petuity the pitiful part of a poor relation who is entitled to expect to be helped out again and again but is under no moral obligation Whatsoever to reciprocate?
Germany and Japan, two de- feated nations, solved long ago their balance of payments prob- lems inherited from the war. And even Britain has at long last a substantial balance of payments surplus, So the excuse that, when it is the turn of the United States to expect us to help, even to the extent of honouring a contract, we cannot afford it because of the effect of two wars on our balance of payments is just not good enough.
Apart *altogether from con- siderations of national dignity, commercial ethics and moral ob- ligations towards a generous friend and ally, it would be to Britain's
vital interests in the long run to assist the United States in the present difficulty instead of hag- gling and driving a hard bargain about the extent of the assistance. For a time will come when she will need American financial assis- tance once more.
As Sir Denis Brogan undoubt- edly remembers, it was not easy for Roosevelt to induce Congress to forget Britain's default on her war debts of the first world war. It will be even more difficult for a future President to induce Con- gress and American public opinion to forget Britain's present attitude in connection with the Rolls-Royce crisis. The cost of assistance en- abling Rolls-Royce to honour its contractual obligations would buy immense goodwill for Britain in the United States and would prove to be sooner or later the best in- vestment Britain has ever made.
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