UNIFIED FORCES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 301, 20 December 1943, Page 3

UNIFIED FORCES

Single Allied Air Command In

South-east Asia

UNDER SIR RICHARD PEIRSE

Rec. 11 a.m.

RUGBY, Dec. 19

All fighting units of the British and American air forces in South-east Asia are to be in a single command under Air-Chief-Marshal Sir Richard Peirse. All combat units of the 10th United States Air Force and the Royal Air Force will be merged and will in future be known as the Eastern Air Command. It will be headed by Major-General Stratemeyer, commander of all United States activities in India, who will become second in command to Sir Richard Peirse.

The new command will include a tactical air force under the operational control of Air-Marshal Sir John Baldwin and a sti'ategical air force under Brigadier - General Howard, 10th United States Air Force.

In a statement the supreme Allied commander in South-east Asia, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, said the Allied commands worked best with closely unified forces and unification of the air force was therefore a logical step. He felt certain American and British units would prove far more effective now they were united into a single Allied organisation.

APPEAL ALLOWED

CLOSING SHOPS IN SCOTLAND

Rec. 11.30 a.m.

LONDON, Dec. 19.

The High Court in Edinburgh allowed an appeal by N. G. Napier against an order made by the Paisley Sheriff's Court that his business, including 14 branches, be closed for a year because Napier was found guilty on charges of selling perambulators and other articles at excessive prices. The High Court quashed several of the charges and substituted for the Sheriff Court's order a fine of £1000, with an alternative of three months' imprisonment.

A cablegram sent from London on October 2 last stated that 14 shops owned toy Kimmo Garner Napier in the southwest of Scotland had been closed for a year by a Court order. Napier was the first trader to be ordered to close a business under the Board of Trade regulations.