in 1938. These are facts which one cannot refrain  from
mentioning.
Yesterday the United States representative declared here
that Ms government could substantiate a claim for 20,000
million dollars of reparations, were the United States to
start calculating its losses during the war. But such state-
ments hardly carry conviction with people who are aware
of the facts.
We know that the United States made a very great effort
in this war, in defence of its own interests and of our co-m-
mon aims, for which we are all very grateful to the United
States. But for all that, it cannot be said that the United
States is one of those states which suffered grave material
damage in the second world war, which were ruined and
weakened in this war. We are glad that this did not happen
to our ally, although we ourselves have had to go through
trying times, the 'Consequences of which will take us long
years to heal.
Now that you know the facts, place side by side Ru-
mania, enfeebled by the war, or Yugoslavia, ruined iby the
German and Italian fascists, and the United States of Amer-
ica, whose wealth has grown immensely during the war,
and you will clearly see what the implementation of the.
principle of "equal opportunity" would mean in practice.
Imagine, under these circumstances, that in this same Ru-
mania or Yugoslavia, or in some other war-weakened state,
you have this so-called "equal opportunity" for, let us say,
American capital—that is, the opportunity for it to penetrate
unhindered into Rumanian industry, or Yugoslav industry
and so forth: what, then, will remain of Rumania's national
industry, or of Yugoslav's national industry?
It is surely not so difficult to understand that if American
capital were given a free hand in the small *states mined and
enfeebled by the war, as the advocates of the principle of