SUPPLIES TO RUSSIA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 169, 29 April 1943, Page 3

SUPPLIES TO RUSSIA.

TRANSPORT THROUGH PERSIA. NEW YORK, April 28. “War material destined for Russia is now reaching Iran faster than the Russians are able to take it away,” reports a correspondent of the Associated Press somewhere in Iran. “Warehouses and goods yards in the Russian zone of Northern Iran are piled with tanks, trucks, guns, and jeeps awaiting transhipment.

“The corridor from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea has been transformed into. a vast conveyor belt. Lines of tractors are pulling convoys miles long, and American locomotives manned by Americans are hauling war materials for the Red Army. “The supplies are reaching Iran by air and sea. A great air reception centre has been established on. a 45 miles long island, where bombers are flown in and fighters arrive in crates from, cargo ships. Russian officers dressed in smocks and black boots rub their hands and kick their heels together as Mitchell and Boston bombers drop from the sky.

“The docks at the headwaters of the Persian Gulf are a noisy panorama of winches, cranes, and quays piled high with hundreds of thousands of tons of munitions. Ships are unloadingcases of tinned meats, raw steel, brass, barbed wire, tanks, tommy-guns, and even diapers for Russian babies. “Originally the Russians rejected the Persian Gulf route on the ground that the 17,000 miles water route from American was too long. They preferred to rely on Murmansk. However, under British-American collaboration this Persian corridor has been developed. Roads were built, railways elaborated, harbours dredged and enlarged, and the vast paraphernalia necessary for handling war shipments was installed.”