1945 - 2006：英國清償二次大戰戰爭借款

Britain makes final WW2 lend-lease payment●inthenews（2006.12.29）

Sixty-one years after the end of the second world war, Britain has finally paid the US back for vital financial assistance it provided to help the UK continue to resist Nazi Germany.
The Treasury has announced that a payment of $83.25 million (£42.43 million) will be made today to the US, closing the account which was initially set up in 1941.
During the second world war, US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt convinced a doubtful Congress of the need to shore up Britain to prevent Adolf Hitler establishing an unchallenged dominance over Europe.
As a result $4.3 billion (£2.2 billion) of funds were provided at a two per cent interest rate for British use, a triumph for then-prime minister Winston Churchill who had exerted considerable diplomatic pressure in his efforts to win the loan from the Americans.
After victory was achieved in 1945, Britain remained in financial straits and won an additional loan of $1.2 billion (£0.6 billion) from Canada. A payment of $22.5 million (£11.5 million) is also being made today to clear that account.
"It was vital support which helped Britain defeat Nazi Germany and secure peace and prosperity in the postwar period," Treasury minister Ed Balls said in a statement.
"We honour our commitments to them now as they honored their commitments to us all those years ago."
Britain has paid nearly twice the original amounts provided to the lending countries. In total $7.5 billion (£3.8 billion) has been paid to the US and $2 billion (£1.1 billion) to Canada.

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/news/finance/britain-makes-final-ww2-lend-lease-payment-$1034891.htm

Britain pays 1945 war debt●The Sunday Times（2006.12.24）

THE government will this week close a chapter in Britain’s wartime history by completing the repayment of a loan taken out with America more than 60 years ago, just after the second world war.

Treasury officials said the repayment of the US war loan taken out under a 1945 agreement would be completed by December 31.

The loan dates back to September 1945. From 1941, Britain and other allied nations had received large quantities of equipment and supplies under Franklin Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease programme.

Britain received about $30 billion of goods — just over £7 billion at the prevailing exchange rate — during the war years, in effect gifts from America. But in September 1945 the US abruptly announced an end to the Lend-Lease programme, despite the need for large-scale reconstruction and with Britain on its knees economically.

Goods already in Britain or in transit were sold to the UK government at heavily discounted prices — one-tenth of their value — the amount paid being in the form of a loan.

The amount, together with a line of credit, was $4.34 billion with a 2% interest rate, originally intended to be paid back over 50 years beginning in 1950.

Some critics, including Lord Keynes, saw the loan as a means used by America to subjugate Britain after the war.

As it was, keeping up the payments was often difficult. There were six years when Britain deferred payment as a result of economic crises and pressure on the official reserves. But this week’s £43m remittance will pay it off.

Many war loans are never repaid.

Britain borrowed money from America during the first world war but never fully settled the debt. This was because President Herbert Hoover declared a debt moratorium during the global financial crisis of 1931.

At the time of the moratorium, Britain was owed more in war debt by other countries than it owed to America.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/article1264220.ece