OUTPUT OF PLANES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 July 1940, Page 5

OUTPUT OF PLANES

PLANS IN UNITED STATES MEETING BRITISH NEEDS. SOME DOUBTS EXPRESSED BY MANUFACTURERS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) WASHINGTON, July 25. Ojficials deny the statement of the British Minister of Aircraft Production, Lord Beaverbrook, that the United States has approved the delivery of 3000 planes a month to Britain. They admit that they are considering an expansion of production to" at least 60,000 a year to enable accommodation of the British cider. The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr Morgenthau, said that the United States had pledged itself to give every facility io enable the British to buy 3000 planes a month in addition to the huge orders already placed. This would require the construction of new factories, for which the British had promised to pay. He added that the Treasury, the War Department and the Navy Department were in complete accord with the commitment, and that details were being worked out. The new factories, he said, would give the United States the capacity to build far in excess of 50,000 planes a year. ‘The sums involved are colossal,” he added; “the British seem to have plenty of money.” He did not doubt their ability to pay. Mr Morgenthau said that the British wanted 72,000 planes in 1941 and 1942, in addition to the existing., contracts.

“From the standpoint of national defence,” he said, “that is the best thing that has happened this year.” He predicted that the American capacity would be far in excess of President Roosevelt’s announced goal of 50,000 planes a year. He said that the British proposal had received serious consideration. “We have agreed to study the proposals and have given them every possible facility to place orders and get delivery.” Private aircraft manufacturers describe the British proposals as fantastic, saying that the American production is not more than 600 machines a month at present.