Fort Knox stated nearly all the gold belonged to the UK,
We have no gold Tony , remember , the Labour Party gave it all away to balance the books .
But I always think of the French when the US - British Lend / Lease loan is referred to .
I believe after two years of World War 2 , Britain was bankrupt & with few resources to draw upon .
America agreed to supply much needed equipment & arms to be paid for at a later date & to enable us to join the U.S in the liberation of Europe .
Then as you rightly refer to , the French , as far as I know , did nothing to help with those repayments .
A strange thing , I distinctly remember the Thatcher government finally paying it off ....but some years later it was also announced that the final payment had been made .
An interesting fact is that for many years , the US has us listed as a Third World country .
Churchill made the following observation :
Vast wealth does not bring happiness, but that small margin of spare money, after necessities have been provided for, constitutes in America, the structure of what is definitely larger life. In the U.S this larger life or rather larger share of life in its natural and rightful balance- is enjoyed by an incomparably greater number than any other country in the world.
The wealth in this country has always been controlled by the establishment , just look at a movie or TV show from the 1950's / 1960's say .
The old sit-com in the 50's show they own a fridge , a car , a telephone , a TV. A teenage type US film shows college kids at 17 say with their own car or hot-rod . Their cars even had RADIOS .
Compare the US troops who came to Britain during WW2 to our own enlisted men , ( A lot who failed the medicals by the way )
US troops were well built , strong ,taller, well fed , healthy , better uniforms , better equipped , better paid, many would be car owners .
British troops , often thin & wiry ,smaller build , poorer diets , rubbish Army pay, dreadful uniforms , under equipped , and brave as Lions .
It was only by the 1960s that the working classes started to find a little bit of spare cash in their pockets as a bit more money was filtering down the line . Teenagers could buy fashion & records instead of saving up for a month , own a car or motor bike .
Like the Americans in the 1940s
Stop me !!! I'm rambling again !!!
