High Pay of U.S. Servicemen Aggravating Inflation

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 59, 13 March 1944, Page 5

High Pay of U.S. Servicemen Aggravating Inflation

AGGRAVATING INFLATION IN AUSTRALIA Received Sunday, 9.20 p.m. CANBERRA, March 12. The high pay of American servicemen in Australia was aggravating inflation here, said the leader of the Country Party (Mr. Padden). He supported the view expressed in Washington by Brigadier-General Lawrence Hedrick, judge advocate of the United States Army Air Force, who said that after a tour of the Pacific war zones he supported the Queensland proposal that part of the American soldiers’ pay be withheld to reduce their spending power in Australia. He added: “It is wrong that Australian efforts to prevent inflation should be upset by the wild spending of a minority of the American troops. (The Federated Chambers of Commerce in Queensland suggested that the pay of American troops in Australia should be reduced to the level of Australian troops, the balance to be hold for them in the United States.) Mr. Fadden suggested that the Prime Minister (Mr. Curtin) should take up the matter with the United States Government. Professor lan Olunies Ross, chairman of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, said the American dollar had 50 per cent, more value in Australia than in the United States. lie advocated an adjustment of the exchange rate as well as the institution of a deferred pay system for American servicemen in this theatre.