MR GOODFELLOW IN LONDON

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23351, 10 June 1941, Page 5

MR GOODFELLOW IN LONDON

—* —■. SPECIAL MISSION FOR GOVERNMENT IMPRESSIONS OF U.S. OPINION (F.0.0.C.) LONDON, May 21. Fifteen days after leaving Auckland by the Clipper, Mr William Goodfellow arrived in London. He has come on a special mission for the New Zealand Government and also in connexion with the business of Amalgamated Dairies, Ltd. Mr Goodfellow reached' Lisbon 10 days after leaving New Zealand, He was delayed there for five days by congestion of traffic. There is a heavy demand on the air service from Lisbon to England, and as many as 1800 people are said to have booked and are waiting to make the flight. "The entire journey was very comfortable and the accommodation was excellent,” said Mr Goodfellow, commenting on the trip, “I was only in America for four days, but as I have been there several times before, and have many friends there, I was able to compare conditions with what they were during previous visits.

"I came away from America with two impressions. One was that America to-day is extremely busy. Whereas she once had 10,000,000 unemployed therq may soon be no unemployed at all, but a shortage of labour. This is because there is tremendous activity in the war industries. Wages are rising rapidly, and also the cost of goods, including food. “The other thing I noticed was, of course, America’s attitude to the war. I found that on the Pacific coast public opinion was lukewarm, and there was a tendency among the people and the newspapers to say, 'What has the war to do with us anyway.?’. But as I travelled in the middle east and on to New York, I found public opinion to be very strongly pro-British, with no doubt that American interest lies with Britain and her allies.

"At Lisbon I stayed for the five days at the Palace Hotel, about 15 miles from Lisbon. I saw mostly British and American people, and heard a number of rumours about the European situation.

"The chief one concerned the possibility of Hitler’s intention of going through Spain to the Mediterranean. Local opinion seemed to believe it was unlikely that he would do so. This was based on the assumption that if Hitler had intended to go through Spain he would have done so long ago. "I also had an interesting talk with a very intelligent Portuguese taxi driver. He told me that the people of Spain were exceedingly short of food and were ‘terrible to look at.’ He also said that the Germans are demanding 60 per cent, of all Spain’s production as payment for the financial and other assistance given by Germany to Spain during the civil war. "Lisbon is a crowded place and the bottle neck of the traffic between England and America. So many hundreds have booked for the flight to England that priority has been given to Government and naval and military authorities; the result is that the ordinary civilian finds it almost impossible to complete his trip. I did hear that some people had been waiting since October.” During his stay in England, which may last about a month, Mr Goodfellow will meet two of his sons. One, Mr Douglas Goodfellow, is serving as an able .seaman in the cruiser Naiad before going on to take a commission at H.M.S. King Alfred. The other, Mr Richard Goodfellow, will arrive shortly to join the Fleet Air Arm. He has also been recommended for a commission.