While the greater part of the guarantees are given to companies and undertakings operating in Great Britain, the Committee considers that (subject, of course, to the material being bought in this country) it would help to advance general economic restoration if part of the fund were allotted to enterprises abroad, e.g. in the extension and improvement of foreign railways. By that means the foreign country’s productive and purchasing power would be increased and she would resume her place as a supplier of the world’s necessities and as a purchaser of the world’s—and Great Britain’s—manufactured goods. The difficulty, however, of dealing with foreign loans is that the countries which chiefly require assistance are those suffering from a heavily depreciated currency, and accordingly the service of a sterling loan would place so onerous a burden on them that it would be more than doubtful whether they could bear it and meet their obligations. To find adequate security in such cases is, therefore, a great difficulty, to which there is added the unwillingness of such countries to pledge even the inadequate security which it is within their power to give, and the record of many of these countries as regards their past obligations has not been such as to inspire confidence. The Committee keeps always before it the fact that it is a custodian of the Public Purse, and that much more harm than good would be done by recommending guarantees in cases in which the risks are greater than the principles of sound commercial prudence would accept. The principles on which the Committee acts are these: