GOVERNMENT: British Relief

Jesse Jones gave the British a break last week on the forced liquidation of British-owned U.S. companies to pay for war supplies. Satisfied that in today’s market British-American Tobacco Co. might have trouble getting $40,000.000 for their Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. subsidiary (Wings, Kool, Raleigh, Avalon), he lent them the money, left them a chance to salvage their investment, when the loan is paid off in ten years.

Treasury Secretary Morgenthau said he was “delighted,” denied this meant any letting up in U.S. insistence that Britain use all its assets here before getting free supplies at U.S. expense. Presumably also satisfied was Guaranty Trust Co., which will get $15,000,000 to pay off its Brown & Williamson loan.