Loose Talk Of Colossal Waste By Americans

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 199, 23 August 1945, Page 4

Loose Talk Of Colossal Waste By Americans

By CLIVE C. TIDMARSH TF all the petrol the Americans were 1 allegedly allowed to spill over Mother Earth in order to lighten their vehicles, because they couldn t be bothered storing it, or just for the sheer hell of it, was collected and placed in a tank, it would be sufficient to fill Orakei Basin five times over.

That is a rough computation (very rough) based on the welter of rumour and loose talk which was flung around Auckland during the days of the American "occupation" here.

And petrol, we were told, was only a fleabite in the orgy of reckless handling and wast 3 of essential war materials our powerful Allies were confidently stated to be indulging in. Millions of dollars worth of valuable clothing and equipment were supposed to be dumped into the harbour ("I saw it with my own eyes just off Bean Rock"), burned, mutilated, ploughed in ("cabbages by the thousand") and generally liquidated.

It was always hard to track down the source of these stories. You could never get them first-hand. At the time I attempted, occasionally, to work back through the chain of evidence and get at the facts, but somewhere in the line the witnesses always petered out. They couldn t give you exact data about times and localities.

Americans, we found, are inclined to be careless naturally. They have a carefree abandon, a heritage of living in the richest land on earth where everything, from canyons to skyscrapers, is on the grand scale. They believe in cutting their losses. We don't, especially our Government departments. Contamination Menace But the time has come to answer— authoritatively—some of the fantastic tales which kept Auckland tongues wagging.

So far from destroying goods at the reclamation project at Tamaki, it was often found to be economic to spend in repairs five or six times more than an article originally cost if it was in short supply. The case of tentage can be cited as an example.

There were times when the Americans destroyed usable property because it was contaminated, and there were no adequate means here of rendering it safe for future use.

It was advisable, frequently, to burn mattresses rather -than risk the spread of infection. Many an instance arose when diseases new to New Zealand would have been introduced had certain clothing and bedding been released for civilian use. It was better to destroy a large quantity of suspected material than take a risk with a small quantity. Auckland analysts were among those who advised 'the Americans in cases of doubt like this. I was convinced that there were no known cases of wilful waste with American material.

On one occasion 600 tons of ammunition was dumped into the Hauraki Gulf. That was wilful waste to those who got only half the story.

It seemed that manufacturers' defects were discovered in some of the stuff. Short bursts developed. It was unsafe and dangerous to handle, and there were not enough qualified men here to service it. Some of the explosive was of American standard type and could not be adapted to our fuses and detonators. There was no shipping space to return it to America where it would have been dumped anyhow. . Rot-Infected Timber Then there was the case of a large shipment of oregon, fir and pine, brought in for American box-making requirements. It was infected with dry rot and the Americans made arrangements with the War Assets Reaiisation Board to sell it for firewood.

One lot was disposed of by the board and two weeks later it appeared on the market as building timber! Trade interests got to hear about it and the upshot was destruction of the whole shipment by the Americans under instructions of the War Assets Board.

I was informed of another case of wholesale destruction which seemed to be justifiable in the circumstances. Several hundred burner units for kerosene stoves were broken up for white metal because it was impossible to repair them here. Generally, there was no space in outgoing ships for anything not of first-class value to the war effort.

All destruction of U.S. material at the Third Base Depot, the commanding officer, Colonel Lloyd Nickerson told me, was carried out on orders from the War Assets Realisation Board, or on the direction of the medical officer of health, owing to risk of contamination, or at the behest of the authorities in Washington, D.C.

Among individuals and in individual units there may have been mistakes made or errors of judgment there have been a few, I understand among our own armed forces but the Americans are too well drilled mentally drilled and disciplined to spread themselves in orgies of sabotage.

Maybe some Auckland "gals" did get a ride in a jeep. Good luck to tnem and to tneir male Remember the Japs were over Auckjanct in March and May, 1912!