The Principle of Lend-Lease
In a report to Congress on the operation of Lend-Lease Presi- dent Roosevelt mentions the enormous totals of supplies that have been sent to the Allies, but points out that in the period between March, 1941, and October, 1942, the export of goods bought with cash by the Allies was more than Lend-Lease aid. But the Presi- dent is not content to state the case as if it were merely a matter of supplies. Even from that limited point of view raw materials are reaching the United States from the Allies, and supplies are being given to American troops overseas by Great Britain, India, Australia, New Zealand and Fighting France. But Mr. Roosevelt refuses to leave out any of the elements which constitute co-opera- tion in a common cause ; he dwells on the necessity for bringing together the joint productive capacity and all the resources of the United Nations "in accordance with a single world-strategy." Sometimes the contribution made takes the form of supplies, some- times of the use of ships, sometimes of the efforts of fighting-men. For example, in Egypt the British did the bulk of the fighting in co-operation with Greece, Poland and France, while in supplies the United States played the major role. The North African offensive was a combined operation in the fullest sense of the words. This is a fair and magnanimous account of the principles underlying Lease-Lend, which rests upon the assumption that each contributes the utmost within his power towards the defeat of the enemy in services of various kinds. The President does not consider that the sacrifice of life is less than the sacrifice of money, and that the latter only should count in the final reckoning.
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