Financial Aid to Foreign Countries

Report Outline
United States and Foreign Reconstruction
Grants and Credits to Foreign Countries
Problem of Repayment of Foreign Loans
Special Focus

United States and Foreign Reconstruction

Prospect of New Program to Aid European Recovery

Mounting indications that Europe cannot win its battle for reconstruction and recovery without additional outside aid make it virtually certain that the United States will soon be called upon to undertake a new foreign lending program of large proportions or to initiate some peacetime variant of lend-lease. The purpose of such a program will be not only to save Europe from economic collapse and its political consequences, but to avert a world economic crisis which would seriously affect production and employment in this country.

At Harvard University, June 5, Secretary of State Marshall observed that “The rehabilitation of the economic structure of Europe quite evidently will require a much longer time and greater effort than had been foreseen.”

The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products—principally from America—are so much greater than the present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character …