MUTUAL AID

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1943, Page 4

MUTUAL AID

AGAINST COMMON ENEMY CONTRIBUTION OF BRITISH COMMONWEALTH. ACKNOWLEDGED BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.20 a.m.) RUGBY, November 11. President Roosevelt, in his twelfth Lend-Lease report to Congress, said that to June 30, the British Commonwealth had spent 1171 million dollars for reverse Lend-Lease aid, including 871 mil- , lion dollars by Britain, and 300 million dollars by Australia, New Zealand and India. The President said Britain had agreed last summer to extend reverse Lend-Lease to include not only goods and services for the American armed forces, but also raw materials, commodities and food stuffs which United States Government agencies formerly purchased from Britain and her colonies. This would make available to the United States, without payment, such materials and foodstuffs as rubber, sisal, asbestos, tea, coconut oil, benzol and cocoa. British shipping for these raw materials and foodstuffs from all parts of the British Commonwealth would also be made available. Discussions were also under way with other governments of the British Commonwealth looking toward a like arrangement for the provision of materials and foodstuffs.

Dealing with British aid in maintaining the air offensive, Mr Roosevelt said the British had provided the United States Bomber and Fighter commands with many necessary items, such as specially-heated, winter flying clothing to protect bomber crews from the intense cold suffered at high altitudes, When certain United States fighter gunsights proved less effective than the sights employed by British fighters, the R.A.F. provided a substantial number of the British type of sights for immediate.instalment. American bombers had been equipped by the British with photographic equipment effective in obtaining photographs of the target during a bomb run. The British had also provided facilities for the development and production of a new type of protective body armour, designed by American medical authorities. A variety of other aid had also been provided, including mobile repair shops, located throughout Britain, for the reconditioning of American bombers forced to make crash landings. Another idea developed by the British for parachute landings at sea provides American pilots with a floating raft. Specialised British radio equipment had been installed on American planes, which had given greater safety to American bomber crews and improved effectiveness in bombing missions. Mr Roosevelt after detailing numerous items of reverse Lend-Lease, said: “This statement of expenditures given by the British Commonwealth of Nations for reverse Lend-Lease aid furnished to the United States and of the expansion of this programme to include exports of materials and foodstuffs emphasises the contribution the British Commonwealth has made to the defence of the United States while taking its place on the battlefronts. It is an indication of the extent to which the British have been able to pool their resources with ours so that the needed weapon may be in the hands of that soldier, whatever his nationality, who can at the proper moment use it most effectively to defeat the common enemy.” NEW ZEALAND’S PART FOODSTUFFS & OTHER SUPPLIES & SERVICES. (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, November 11. President Roosevelt said New Zealand, no less than Australia and the United Kingdom, had supplied its share of reverse lend-lease, totalling 51 million dollars, to June 30, 1943, including supplies, services and foodstuffs, 24 million dollars; camps, six million dollars; hospitals, three million dollars; warehouses, five million dollars; miscellaneous, seven million dollars; ship construction, six million dollars. “New Zealand, with Australia,” the President said, “is the food basket of the American forces stationed throughout the South Pacific. New Zealand had greatly increased her capacity for packing, canning and dehydration ini order better to supply our forces. New Zealand also carries numerous articles of clothing. In order to fill American requirements, New Zealand has rationed civilian clothing to less than one full outfit yearly. American requirements have occasioned other shortages in New Zealand civilian life.