RE: AMERICANS

From: On Behalf Of Michael Llaneza
Sent: 01 June 2002 19:10
Subject: Re: AMERICANS

> That's an oft-overlooked point about Roosevelt
> and the Lend Lease program. He very effectively
> used our funding of Britains war with Germany
> to strip the Empire of its Western hemisphere
> possesions (Bermuda and Iceland)

Err? Iceland, a UK possession? When?
Bermuda still is, AFAIK.

Greenland must have had a strange status; the
Danish king (and government?) had been captured
early in 1940.

No-one asked us to cough up any of the Carribean
islands even though they were seen as "back yard"
after the war. Or did we hand over a couple of
the Lesser Antilles?

> This is very possibly a motivation for the
> formation of the NAC - Britain getting some of
> its own back. Churchill would be proud.

Oh no he wouldn't. Churchill would have been
much more in favour of your following sentiment,
even if it were only on a "53rd state" basis.

> Frankly, the idea of a formal coalition of the
> English-speaking peoples appeals to me...

Over the outstanding loans question, Meynard(?)
Keynes had to back to Washington immediately
after the end of Lend-Lease in September 1945
for a loan of (then) GBP1.1B, or USD4.3B. He
described our situation as a "financial Dunkirk".

Most of the loan was spent by the post-war Atlee
government, though die-hard socialists have also
blamed the government for trying to maintain the
country's pre-war overseas "obligations".

This financial state of affairs may help explain
the "Cinderella" status of our forces in Korea
and the apparent post-war rush to abandon many
of our colonies. After Suez (ultimately a victim
of the same financial weaknesses) the Empire was
written off at the highest levels, with only a
few small enclaves remaining after the African
states were encouraged to jump ship in the mid-
1960s.

Today the loan would be worth GBP70B, or USD70B.
The final payment of GBP244M is scheduled for
2006 if we don't take up an option to defer.

Partly from The (London) Sunday Times, 2/06/02.