-18-
 
      
 
 
17.Last of all I come to the question of finance. The more 
      rapid and abundant the flow of munitions and ships, which you 
      are able to send us, the sooner will our dollar credits, be exhausted. 
      They are already as you know very heavily drawn upon by payments 
      we have made to date. Indeed as you know orders already placed 
      or under negotiation, including expenditure settled or pending 
      for creating munitions factories in the United States, many times 
      exceed the total exchange resources remaining at the disposal 
      of Great Britain. The moment approaches when we shall no longer 
      be able to pay cash for shipping and other supplies. While we 
      will do our utmost and shrink from no proper sacrifice to make 
      payments across the exchange, I believe that you will agree that 
      it would be wrong in principle and mutually disadvantageous in 
      effect if, at the height of this struggle, Great Britain were 
      to be divested of all saleable assets so that after victory was 
      won with our blood, civilization saved and time gained for the 
      United States to be fully armed against all eventualities, we 
      should stand stripped to the bone.