PROMPT ACTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 March 1941, Page 5

PROMPT ACTION

IN GIVING EFFECT TO LEASE AND LEND BILL President Roosevelt Asks for Big Appropriation SPEEDING FLOW OF WAR SUPPLIES TO BRITAIN QUICK RESPONSE BY CONGRESS ANTICIPATED President Roosevelt has made a request to Congress for an appropriation immediately of 7,000,000,000 dollars to carry out the Lease and Lend Bill programme, states the 8.8. C. Every gun, plane and munition of war that the United States could possibly spare should be handed over to Britain and her allies, ■ he said. It was imperative for the security of the United States that Britain should be encouraged by an increasing flow of munitions. The United States must become the arsenal of democracy as a forerunner of her own defence. Plans are being made to rush the President’s request through Congress. Mr Winston Churchill, speaking in the House of Commons, said the passing of the Bill was a monument to generous and farseeing statesmanship. The Government and people of the United States, he said, had written a new Magna Carta. Asked if he would consider making a broadcast to the United States, Mr Churchill said he would try to choose the exact moment for such a broadcast. The Home Secretary, Mr Herbert Morrison, s;aid the Bill must not be taken as an excuse for Britain to lessen her own ’ increasing war effort.