From my notes
I hope that this may be of interest; it is taken from my research paper:
Quote:
THE U.S.A.
The one exception to the slackening of orders was that for vehicles. Evidence from actual vehicles has shown that although they were assembled well into 1945, and in fact overseas assembly continued for post-war purposes into 1946, these were 1944 orders. However, these continued to be supplied to the United Nations forces and then post-war Canada and the United Nations organisation U.N.R.R.A. gifted new and refurbished vehicles to various countries for their own forces or for infrastructure repairs. It is not know whether the U.N. paid the Canadian Government for these vehicles or not.
At the end of the war in Europe, the U.K. had liabilities of £3,600 million, of which £2,723 million was owed in the sterling area. In order to resolve the chronic financial problems that the U.K. had by the end of 1945, discussions took place between the two Governments from 11 September to 5 December 1945. Truman and Attlee announced the first post-war settlement agreement after negotiations had been completed. A joint statement appended to the “Financial Agreement between The Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom”, 6 December 1945 effected the “Settlement for Lend-Lease, Reciprocal Aid, Surplus War Property and Claims” . The settlement was worked out in detail in “Specific Agreements” concluded in March 1946 . With reference to the Mutual Aid Agreement [i.e. the Master Lend-Lease Agreement of 23 February 1942], the agreement envisaged final settlement of Lend-Lease and Reciprocal Aid. No further benefits would be sought as consideration for Lend-Lease or Reciprocal Aid. The net sum due from the U.K. to the U.S. in settlement of the two programs, for the acquisition of surplus property, and the U.S. interest in installations in the U.K. and for the settlement of claims should be $650 million subject to accounting adjustment as provided. All new transactions after 1 December 1945 were to be paid for by cash.
However, although the U.S. did not intend to exercise generally its rights, the agreement allowed the U.S. the right of recapture of any Lend-Lease articles held by U.K. armed forces. Disposals for military use to non-U.K. forces of Lend-Lease articles held by the U.K. and disposals for civilian use other than in the U.K. and colonial dependencies of such lend-Lease articles would be made only with the consent of the U.S. Government, and any net proceeds were to be paid to the U.S. government. The U.K. Government agreed that except to a very limited extent it would not release for civilian use in, or export from, the U.K. and colonial dependencies, Lend-Lease articles held by the U.K. armed forces. The U.K. Government agreed to use best endeavours to prevent the export to the U.S. of any surplus property transferred in accordance with this understanding.
The U.K. Government agreed to transfer from time to time prior to 31 December 1951, when requested by the U.S. Government, cash in pounds sterling the dollar value not to exceed $50 million at prevailing exchange rates to be credited against the dollar payments due to the U.S. Government as principal under the agreement. The sterling was to be used to acquire land or acquire or construct buildings in the U.K. and colonial dependencies for the use of the U.S. Government and for the carrying out of educational programmes as agreed.
The agreement did not affect settlements between the U.S. and Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India, but there was no reference to Canada. However, what would prove to be a massive millstone around the neck of the U.K. was the requirement to fund repayments of an essential loan from the U.S. Only a moderate loan was [pre-Marshall Plan] judged to be acceptable to Congress, and despite the best efforts of the British negotiators, interest had to be paid on the loan. Congress finally voted in the package, and Truman signed on 15 July 1946. The arrangement consisted of two elements: a loan or “line of credit” to the U.K. fixed at US$3,750 million and secondly the payment by the U.K. of US$650 million in complete and final settlement of the financial claims of each Government against each other arising out of the conduct of the war. The $650 million was a liability to be discharged by the U.K. on the same terms as the loan, which could be drawn on up to 31 December 1951 at which time interest would become due on the total sum of US$4,400 at 2%. Of that $650 million, $60 million was attributed to the “sale” of U.S. property in the U.K., and $472 million as payment in final settlement for stocks of lend-lease goods of civilian types held by the U.K. on V.J. Day.
The general lend-lease settlement referred to above was then the subject of nine “Specific Agreements” negotiated between December 1945 and March 1946, and signed on 27 March 1946. Of those nine, the third was for “Civilian Holdings” and the fourth “Military Holdings”. It appears that the U.S. Government recaptured all of their military aircraft that they wanted, and as a compromise, 672 Dakota aircraft and 43 other aircraft were deemed capable of civilian use and regarded as being covered by the 6 December 1945 total. An equal number of Dakotas were then temporarily leased as well. The net result of this was that after the U.S. and U.N.R.R.A. had picked over all of the U.S. Lend-Lease stores, what was left was able to be transferred to the U.K. Government title, and this included “civilian” vehicles which were used as ambulances, relief, canteens, etc., and military vehicles left. The Ministry of Supply then gained title to vehicles which were disposed of under the S.M.M.T. scheme or by tender.
Total U.S. Lend-Lease aid to the U.K. was in the order of US$27,000 million, and British reciprocal aid to the U.S. US$6,000 million, equivalent to US$20,000 million from a country the size of the U.S. The settlements then wrote off some US$16,000 million or over US$20,0000 million of Lend-Lease credit. However, the Dollar Debt and shortage of currency to repay the agreed indebtedness would prove to be a massive burden on every single member of the population in the U.K.
The United States Treasury, Department of Commerce and War Assets Administration represented the U.S. Government in the disposal of all U.S. assets, either domestic or overseas and recaptured. Military truck production ended under wartime contracts in the U.S. in 1946 with 2,019 produced. U.S. disposals at 50% of the acquisition cost netted the U.S. Government $111,461,935 to 1 January 1947, with disposals of vehicles starting in 1944. By 1 March 1947 disposal had been made of 269,678 Trucks, 32,257 Jeeps, 29,084 Passenger Cars, 331,019 Power Units, and 55.406 Trailers!
CANADA
From 1943, the Canadian War Industries Control Board in Ottawa supervised the disposal of surplus vehicles through it appears in the case of Canadian disposals, to appointed Canadian dealers at fixed prices. However, after the war ended a formal resolution of who owned what and who owed whom had to be resolved in order for remaining Canadian assets in Canada and those in the U.K. that were to be disposed of [the Ministry of Supply being anxious to sell at the best prices anything and everything that could realise funds]. The War Claims Settlement between the United Kingdom and Canada, which was concluded on 6 March 1946 following negotiations at Ottawa between the two Governments. The Government of the U.K. agreed to pay the sum of C$150 million to the Government of Canada, and thereupon with exceptions listed, the two Governments agreed to cancel all claims against each other that arose on or after 3 September 1939. The agreement amongst other things included without limitation:
a) All claims arising out of the operations of the Inspection Board of the U.K. and Canada and the period of the settlement was extended to 31 March 1946 when the Government of Canada took over all the assets and liabilities of the Board as of that date;
b) All claims of the Government of the U.K. arising out of the operation by the Department of Munitions and Supply of Canada of joint production projects and all claims relating to the period before 1 March 1946 arising from past or future re-negotiation of contracts or the retroactive adjustment of prices paid by or charged to the Government of the U.K. in Canada;
c) All claims between the two Governments arising from the sharing of profits and losses before 1 March 1946 under contracts or arrangements made before that date and where projects covered by profit or loss sharing agreements continued in operation beyond that date, shares of profits or losses accruing on and after that date were not affected by the Agreement except in the case of the Inspection Board;
d) All claims between the two Governments arising from the disposal in the United Kingdom of surplus war assets of the Government of Canada or from the disposal in Canada of surplus U.K. war assets, provided that nothing was to prejudice the right of either Government to remove any of its surplus war assets from the other country, either for its own use or transfer to others. Therefore, any Canadian-owned vehicles, generators, trailers, etc. left in the U.K. and not reclaimed by the Canadian Government, were able to be disposed of by the British Government, acting presumably through the Ministry of Supply.
The Canadian Government therefore provided the total financial aid to the U.K., freely and without charge:
1942 Gift C$1,000 million
1943-45 Mutual Aid C$2,043 million
1946 Cancellation of Air Training Debt C$425 million
Total: C$3,468 million
Plus the cost of wartime requirements in Canada was estimated at a further C$7,441 million to the end of 1944. Payments by Canada in respect of its forces overseas was $C1,580 million, and the amount found by the U.K. out of its current earnings was $1,104 million. The rest was met by the sale of securities, gold payment and other means.
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18-04-09, 22:40
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