AMERICAN HELP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 March 1943, Page 3

AMERICAN HELP

FACTS NOT MADE KNOWN TO RUSSIAN PEOPLE REPORTED COMPLAINT. BY UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) MOSCOW, March 9. Hitherto the Russian Press had not acknowledged the material help which they were receiving from America not only through lease-lend but also through the Red Cross, complained the United States Ambassador, Admiral Standley, at a conference with British and American correspondents. The head of the Russian Red Cross, he said, had acknowledged this help, but the acknowledgment had not been published in the Russian Press. “It is not fair to mislead the Americans into giving millions thinking that they are aiding the Russian people and yet the Russian people do not know it,” he declared. Asked why he thought the Soviet authorities were not informing the Soviet peoples, Admiral Standley said: “They are seemingly trying to create an impression at home and abroad that they are fighting the war alone. They apparently desire to make out that they are fighting the war with their own resources rather than acknowledge help from anyone.” Pointing out that a new lease-lend Bill was now before Congress, Admiral Standley added: “The American Congress is generous and big-hearted, but if you give the impression that their help means nothing there might be a different story.” In Washington, Mr Sumner Welles, Assistant Secretary of State, referring to the obsevations reported to have been made in Moscow by the United States Ambassador, Admiral Standley,

said he had cabled to Admiral Standley asking for the text of his statements, which had been made without consultation with the United States Government. Mr Welles said he believed that understanding and trust existed between the United Nations and that nothing that might have been said could affect the position. POSSIBLE EFFECT ON LEASE-LEND POLICY. FEARED BY SOME MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 10 a.m.) NEW YORK, March 9. , Commenting on Admiral Standley’s statement that the news of American aid is being withheld from the Russian people, the “New York Times” Washington correspondent says some . Congressmen voiced the fear that this disclosure would strengthen the possibility, of the adoption of restrictive amendments to the Bill before the House, to extend the Lease-Lend Act for a year. Some observers associated the disclosure with M. Stalin’s order of the day, issued a fortnight ago, stating that M. Stalin, in effect, told the Russians that they were fighting the war alone, and thus were entitled to dictate their own peace terms.