Daily Post - 31.12.1941, Blaðsíða 2

2
DAILY POST
DAILY POST
is published by
Blaðahringurinn.
Editors: £5. Benediktsson.
Sgt. J. I. McGhie.
Office: 12, Austurstræti. Tel.
3715, Reykjavík. Printed by
Alþýðuprentsmið j an
Wednesdiay, Dec- 31, 1941
The Freedom Front
Paylng for the W»rS
One of Our Biggest Problems
in Post^War Britain
By a Sgt. of the Iceland Force
The yeair 1941 ends to-day 'on a
note’ of great Hope for mankind.
We are iwiitnessing iin embryio the
birth of ai grand Uniion of Free-
dom Loving Peoples.
In Waishington, capital of the
tvtoT'ld’s m<0'st highly industrial-
ised, so-oailed “,capita,li,st“ staite,
amd in Mosqofw., 'capital of the
vvoi'ld’s first siouaalled “icommun-
ist“ state, parallel oonferences
hiave taken plaoe tw.ith Identicail
ends in viöw., — tbe formation
of a “Freedom Fiont“ to smash
tyranny. '
Forgioitten are the ill-'aonceived
sobriquets of “a.ristoarat“, “boiur-
geois“ and “ptloletarian". All free
peop'les of all olasses, oreeds and
tolours are at last united in a
oommoíi atmiggle against the
forcies iof evil, bru,:aiity and perse-
oution.
The oambined might 'Of Britain,
America, Russia and China,, aided
by ,the moral foroe — and soon,
t\e hope, the physioal forcie — of
the nat’ons temporarily enslaved,
is now a'ligned against the frantia
but vain fury of ihe dratatoií
states.
The neiw. League of Nations,
/wihose birth twe are witnessiing at
this moment, i*s nio, mere forum
for the vapiouirmgs lof idealists.
It is a formal allianoe of fighting
demoaracies, linked itaget'her by
bonds iof s'teel and slweat, ailil' for
one and one fo:r all. Ilt beginis
Kviher>e ,the old League of Natioms
left off, — America no, ktoger
Kv.ishes ;to evade its respionsibili-
íties, rather does it promise to
beciome one of ,the prime spirits
of Ithe Alliance; the distribuition
of raiw, materials and aocess tO'
|vpTld markets has ajready beem
promised by the Atlantic Gharter;
the “neutrality” fetish, /wlhioh
scared so many lwiell meaning
peoples uintil I'ast year, has, áost
íts potency, — al.l the iwtorltí
knoiwis nowi that Peaae and War
are eaich indiviisible.
Chuinahill, Roosevelt, Stalin,
Chiang Kai Shek, — these are
the names behiind the metw' Free-
dom Front, and behind them
stand the huindreds of millioms of
ordinary men and iwiomen wfhose
The fi'St íear of a,U men when
hearing the figure lU/s mi,lli,oíi
'pound per day on War expendi-
tu:e i&: If we haven’t the momey
will p ioduction cease? If, for
example they need 20,000 planes
wiil the Govemment be ablj to
o(Tidier only 10.000 becciuse it has
íuo|fc the mor.ey fioc any more?
We have scesi .goi;:'ds p lodmcíd
in Amedca are either paid for
oluit Tf the goild 3.1111 idollap re-
sierves England haq in the U-S.A.
op else pald to the mar.iufuc'.urers
by the U.S.A. Gove rment tunder
jthe Leise a,nd Leni Act. Tha
colonies, too, by leaving theiir
500 mUlio.n pciund t ade bal ince
in itfu-r hands axe doing away
with the nece&sity fo' paying
them now. In sdditl&n, the majo -
_ity of Alliied Gove nments wlth
any r,eeil sources of inoome are
in Engian.d and contdhu'e in de-
vious ways to the T'earury.
So ,the question, in most iwiays,
is a question lotf internal edonomy.
Can Great Britain affoxd to in-
crease her output of iwar máteri-
als and munitions? The answer is
“Yes“. Sinlce, as long as luxu/ry
industries and pur|chases aire cut
dowin and surplus cash is turned
into bonds, thie Govemment
merely gets back from industry
iw,hat she needs to run the iwar.
The govemment indome is not a
mythiidal revenue ohtained from
the go.ld mines of Fairyland, it is
simp.ly >the sum <aS twihat it ta,kes
o,r b'orrio(Ais from your intefome
and mine. To put it, perhaps too
crudrily, increased iwar expendi-
tu'e merély means inicreafed iwork
on thie part lof people (who have
no,t previouS'ly iwonked to their
fu(ll earning capaicity. Intareased
nationa'l imdo'mie rightly direrted,
imp'lies an inlcreased national
abi'lity to., spemd.
i
THE STERLING ABROAD
Some fear that the knOiwiledge
of an umbalanlcied Budget, plus
oiur imcreased f oreign expenditure,
Iwíll lead 'to. the deprdcia,tion of
the value of the pound abroad.
so'.e desi're it is to live in peace
and liberty.
If that did happen we iwould
then have to pioduce imore goods
(for export) to the pound and
thus have to keep more industries
engaged in export -trade artides
than w ou’ld ha.ve been need'ed if
the pound had stayed at a slable
level. A high valiue of steriing
abro,ad meains 'less effort for
‘luxu'iy export trades, moire man-
power, capita'l, machinery and
transport for essemtial iwar in-
dustries. Simce iwe have to buy
uidély from all over the iwiorid,
offering siedimg Kv.heie betfone we
rélied on baianioe ptf trade, the
va'lue of the sterllng might easi'.y
cheapen on the markets. If this
happened, morie and moce Engl-
ish money wiould be required to
buy the same quantity of goods
and 'the Treasury iwou'ld have to>
resort either to oo'jossa.l íloans
from abroad (wiho is there to
lend?) or cheapen the value 'of
the pound at home (one /way
to infláfion).
PEGGING
These dangers are avoided by
making agreements w.ith other
ciountries that' the pound be
stabdised at a given rar,e; i. e. the
steriing is pegged. Thus in the
U.S-A- we axe icredóted iwiith just
over 4 dollairs to; the pound. But
the observaii'Ce of this fixed 'rate
must not be 'left t'O individual
honesty. The staite inusy entfoirce
the fixed (pegged) rate, to pre-
vent the developmiemt of láttge
stea'le black mairkets. The iatter
l\ou'ld buy up ajl1 the stenling
they loould and release it at a
lo'wer rate. Fo'r this reason, in
Eng'land all' trade is state lcon-
trolled and dolilars can only be
obtained through prioper qua'rters,
for giovernment samctioned pur-
poses. Sti'U the English had to
binid dollarsi and they did it, first
by exporting as mm’ch goods as
possib’Ie abroad and being paid
for them in ’do'llar.s, and seciondly,
by élaiming for itself aCil d'oTLar
cturremcy owned by British sub-
jécts. Thus, the Exchange Equa'li-
sation Pund pnoivided in go'ld and
foreign curremcy, 388,000,000
pounds in the first 18 montihs of
the iwar.
A great part of our trade is
iwith the U.S-A- and it must be
rea'lised that Kv.ithout the Lease
and Lend Act the stab'le s'eriing
c'ould not be maintained. Behrnd
a’ll this is an extra Finamicial
faictor—iconfidemoe in British
vic;o y. Those 'ocuntr'er iwiho hiave
entered into aigreements for
pegging the pound thereby ex-
press the'r beTief in the ultimíaite
benefit to be gaimed from this
c'lose as.sO'cratiion; just as fear of
Gerinamy forded the BaTka'ms and
Danube States to ac.ept ‘B'laiok
Marks' and useless German goods
in exdhange for vaTuable iw;ar
mateiriaTs. The Dominio'ns, our
seoond 'largest traders, have
shoiwrn the'r aid by leavi'ng the'ir
trade iialance in our hands.
Hemce, b!y these artitficiaT
means, based upon icfonfidemíe
and faith in our cause, the fear of
inflatron fiomöed on us from
abroiad i's mon-,existent.
'The next imstaTmient of this
series |w,ill deal iwcth stopping in-
íiation at home and the dry rot
of the Black Markets.
NAZI “CARE” FOR CATHE-
DRALS
An R.A-F. cfficer who was
stationed near Rheims during
the first winter of the war
makes some pungent comments
on German claims to be pro-
tecting the Cathedral from the
R.A.F. The story was put
about, through the Paris corre-
spondent cf a Spanish news-
paper, that the Nazis had plac-
ed 38,000 sandbags round the
fabric and had removed “the
beautiful stained glass wind-
ows” to the crypt- The officer
writes:
“The facts are that the 38,000
sandbugs were put around the
Cathedral by the French in
September, 1939, and the stain-
ed glass windows were all tak-
en out at the same time. This
was a safeguard against Ger-
man bombing.
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