Money in the Bank

Canadians are pardonably proud that they paid for their own war without U.S. Lend-Lease aid. But not till last week did they learn how narrowly they had squeezed around the financial corner.

In January 1942, Canada's liquid reserves of U.S. dollars and gold had fallen to $174,000,000, barely enough to finance war purchases for six weeks, the Foreign Exchange Control Board revealed. To conserve the rapidly dwindling reserves, drastic exchange controls were imposed, including the highly unpopular ban on use of U.S. dollars by Canadians for pleasure trips. But it was the inflow of dollars under the Hyde Park Agreement that helped most.

At the end of 1945, said FECB, total holdings of gold and U.S. dollars were $1,508,000,000. Result: some FECB restrictions have been partially relaxed. But there was no likelihood that all foreign-exchange controls would be dropped soon.

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