WAR EQUIPMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1941, Page 5

WAR EQUIPMENT

SUPPLIES FROM U.S.A. & CANADA RESULTS OF MR COATES’S MISSION. MINISTERS & OTHERS FOUND MOST HELPFUL. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, July 31. Stating that much of the equipment New Zealand required would come from Canada from materials that had been reserved for Canadian defence, Mr Coates, M.P., a member of the War Cabinet, paid a warm tribute to the way he had been received in both the United States and Canada at a civic reception in the Town Hall Concert Chamber this afternoon after his return by the Pacific Clipper. Mr Jones said the mission, from evidence he had already, had been a success. The Government, had > been delighted with the information received from Mr Coates while he was abroad, but he felt sure Mr Coates still had a surprise packet for them. Mr Coates said he and the Minister of Lands, Mr Langstone, had decided on the way to America to divide into two parties. Mr Langstone, with his team of officers, would attend to the trade side of the mission and he, with Colonel Williams and Mr E. Officer, would deal with weapons, munitions and warlike stores. This covered a ■very wide field, including, under the Lease or Lend Act, not only tanks, planes, launches and all forms of surface craft, but also all that the country needed to maintain its maximum war effort. Now Zealand was the Dominion least able to produce what its men required in these directions. It should not be thought that America was not working. A few weeks ago only a few tanks were going from the United States. Now 16 to 18 a day were coming from one factory in Detroit alone. America was at work. 1 Its heart was in the work and when our men got the up-to-date equipment that was being produced and enough of it, would be another story. Mr Coates said he immediately made contact with the British Purchasing Commission and the British . Supply Commission, and they had been, a great help. Mr Harry Hopkins, supervisor of the Lease oi’ Lend Act programme, had given advice and as- . sistance of great value. He had said, “We don’t want you to leave this coun- , try till you are perfectly satisfied you have got what you want.” It would be ■ a great help to be able to drop him a . line saying there was something he could do for us.

The Secretary for War, Mr Stimson, the Under-Secretary for War, Judge Paterson, the Secretary for the Navy, Colonel Knox, and the State Department had all been most helpful. It would be heartening to New Zealanders to know that America, as well as helping in other ways, was preparing to distribute ships in a way that would be of assistance.

Much of the equipment that was required by New Zealand would come from Canada, Mr Coates said. The equipment was actually required by Canadians for their own defence, but they had said: “We know your boys have had a tough time and we know your position only too 1 well. Take some of the equipment we have reserved for our defence to provide for your deilencc down under,”