Britain is to make its final payment on Hogmanay for the cash loans, oil, food, tanks, aircraft and ships it acquired from America to defeat Hitler under the allied lend-lease scheme in the Second World War.
The last £45m is to be handed over 61 years after Congress agreed to sell the huge amount of weapons and supplies already in transit at a 75% discount when the conflict ended.
Under a deal negotiated in 1945, the UK was given the go-ahead to repay outstanding loans over 50 years from 1950 at 2% interest, with the provision that some payments could be deferred at the discretion of the British government.
That discretion has been exercised six times, mainly because of unfavourable exchange rates and the state of UK gold reserves, delaying instalments on a total bill just exceeding £1bn.
The UK was given a five-year breathing space before payments started because the war effort against Germany, Italy and Japan had all but bankrupted the UK and the Commonwealth.
While most of the £20bn of equipment and munitions shipped across the Atlantic between 1941 and 1945 was effectively a gift, the US demanded basing rights in the Caribbean and Newfoundland in return for 50 ageing destroyers in 1940. The bases allowed Washington to extend its global military and economic spheres of influence and effectively curb that of the British Empire.
The destroyers were vital for convoy escort duties to counter the U-boat menace at a time when the Royal Navy was overstretched and the US had not yet entered the war as a combatant.
One-quarter of all munitions and aircraft used by British forces between 1941 and 1944 came from US factories, most of it given without charge to keep an exhausted UK in the war.
Lend-lease ended suddenly on September 2, 1945, and all subsequent shipments and loans had to be paid for.
A Treasury spokesman said: "We are currently receiving a greater return on our dollar assets than we are paying to service the war loans. It has, in recent years, been very advantageous to us."
Source:
The Herald, Glasgow