BRITAIN'S NEED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 90, 17 April 1941, Page 6

BRITAIN'S NEED.

DOMINION'S PART.

GREATER EFFORT URGED.

" I do not know what shipbuilding facilities you have here, and I cannot say what Australia has been doing in that way since I left for England at the beginning of this year, but I feel very strongly that if we can possibly build ships in these southern countries we ought to do it," said Mr. A. W. Coles, a former Lord Mayor of Melbourne, a member of the Federal House of Representatives, and managingdirector of G. J. Coles, Limited, who arrived by the American Clipper yesterday on his way to Australia after a visit to Britain.

Mr. Coles added that we were dependent on our exports to Britain and yet, we expected her to provide the vessels and take all the risks of convoying outproduce to market. Anything at all that could be done in this part of the world would be a help, and New Zealand and Australia should do all they possibly could.

"If you in New Zc&land have' men and facilities, Broken Hill ought to be able to supply you with steel," he said. "I' know people will talk about the exchange difficulty, but that should not be allowed to stand in the way. It is not an obstacle as betwee.n Britain and America."

In Mr. Coles' opinion the only standard of measuring war effort was by what the United States and Britain were doing to-day. Until we could achieve something like the effort Britain was putting forth we had no right to feel pleased with ourselves, he added. Britain's main problem at the moment was shipping. If supplies of imported raw materials were cut off all this effort would be frustrated.

While in Britain Mr. Coles carried out certain investigations for the Australian Prime Minister, Mr. R. G. Menzies, who, he said, had found so much useful work to do that his stay had been extended.