Borrow to Buy

Disposal of Army & Navy surplus property abroad is going so badly that the U.S. has decided to lend foreign governments the money to buy it. So the Foreign Liquidation Commission reluctantly admitted last week. Already being discussed are 3O-year loans totaling $210 million: $100 million to Russia, $50 million each to Poland and Czechoslovakia, $10 million to Finland. Specifically for the purchase of surplus, they would be apart from the big overall U.S. loans now being discussed (see INTERNATIONAL).

FLC (which handles the sale of foreign surplus) had tried to sell goods for dollar credits. But most European nations wanted to hang onto what few dollars they had, to buy essential goods from the U.S.

Then the U.S. offered to accept local currencies up to a specified amount, eventually exchange them for dollars. This was hardly any better.

Both these methods sold only a piddling $85 million worth of the estimated $8 billion of surplus stocks in Europe. FLC is now apparently convinced that loans are the best way out.

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