Australia USA Lend Lease

[Mike Cecil]

Hi Lang,

Some points to consider:
. The USA was a net exporter of wheat, not importer (along with Canada and Argentina) and
. the graph shows a net surplus for the 10 year period 1940-1949, not just the WW2 period (1940-45). With the vast amounts of wheat and wool placed into storage in Australia during WW2 (despite moves to both reduce the national sheep flock and restrict the area under cultivation for wheat by the respective governing boards, The Australian Wheat Board and the Central Wool Committee), the 1946-1949 period saw a massive export of commodities generally as shipping became available, much of it to the UK and Europe. I'd suggest the trade surplus for 1940-1949 is more a result of that than "sending Liberty ships full of wheat and wool" returning to the USA during WW2.
. The items eligible for inclusion on the LL-RLL account did not include raw/unprocessed items such as wheat and wool. Item categories included: military stores, food (processed, ready to prepare and consume), services and construction - all of which were supplied to US forces in Australia and the Pacific, not exported to the continental USA.


Mike

[Lang]

Mike

. The items eligible for inclusion on the LL-RLL account did not include raw/unprocessed items such as wheat and wool.

That is what I am trying to track. The credits for those exports remained in the commercial world outside LL and I have no doubt were in the mix of cash/internal corporate dealings which reduced Australia's reliance on LL ..

This is a simplistic explaination and business financial dealings are usually far more complex and often so obscure to be opaque so no financial audit or tax investigation could ever get to the full facts of the operation. This is nothing new and off-shore companies and accounts. shell companies, inter-company billing, kick-backs and profit shifting go back to Roman times in various forms.

My thinking is say, Elders, as agents for the Wool Board sold a shipload of wool to USA and had a million dollars put in their USA branch of Bank of NSW account. The Brisbane Boot Lace Factory needed a million dollars of US bootlaces for a contract with the Australian Army.

The BBLF deposited a million dollars equivilent pounds into B of NSW in Australia to Elders who then credited the BBLF their USD holdings in USA.

Elders via the Wool Board distributed the money to Australian farmers. BBLF brought in the bootlaces, sold them to the government with 20% markup and LL knew nothing about the deal.

No physical foreign exchange outgoings or shifting gold across the room in Fort Knox on a government level, only credit exchange between commercial entities.

Lang

[Lang]

Mike

This is an interesting study on WW2 Australian wool. The vast quantity of wool stocks in Australia you refer to largely belonged to Britain who had paid for them and not a backlog of unsold product.

At the end of the Second World War the stock of Australian, New Zealand and South
African wool in the ownership of the United Kingdom Government is 10.4 million
bales. At a meeting of officials from each country held in London in April-May of
1945, the four governments form a joint organisation called, UK Dominion Wool
Disposals Limited to market and sell the stockpile, together with future clips, in an
orderly fashion to ensure the stability of wool prices. By the end of 1951, all the
stockpile is sold, as well as the wool bought in by the organisation at the floor price.

Lang

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40274932

[Mike Cecil]

So not heading in Liberty ships to the USA.

Thanks Lang, all adds to the understanding.


Mike

[Lang]

Just found there was 250,000,000lb Australian Wool Reserve created in USA'

This would have been the Liberty Ship cargo.

I do not want to buy the book but the excerpt leads me to believe this was British owned wool to be converted to product for British war effort.

Will follow up.

Lang

British Economic Warfare in the Far East and the Australian ...https://www.jstor.org › stable
by K Tsokhas · 1993 · Cited by 4 — Creation of a reserve of 250,000,000 lbs of Australian wool in the United States. DO 35/1089. Page 13. 56 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW

[Lang]

Think I have spent enough time on this. Regardless of how it came about it was a pretty quick and neat conclusion with a great can-do attitude treaty.

Lang