NEW ZEALAND AND U.S.

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23891, 9 March 1943, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND AND U.S.

COMMENTS BY MB DOIDGE

“SOME AMERICANS DO NOT LIKE US” (P.A.) WELLINGTON, March 8. The people of New Zealand were deeply concerned about statements made recently in the United States by Mr Melvin J. Maas, that New Zealand had used lease-lend funds to build airfields, and that the United States would not relinquish these airfields after the war, said Mr F. W. Doidge (National, Tauranga), when the ad-dress-in-reply debate was resumed in the House of Representatives to-day. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) had replied that the statement was untrue that the airfields were all built under lease-lend aid, but he had not replied to the suggestion that when the war was ended, the United States would retain the air bases in this country. The Minister of Supply (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) said the matter had been raised officially. Mr Doidge continued that the people of New Zealand were very appreciative of American aid, but it would be foolish to ignore the fact that there were many Americans who did not like us. For instance, there had been a strange outburst recently by Mr Wendel Willkie. The Hearst Press had never disguised its dislike of Britain and there was also Mr Henry Luce and Colonel McCormick. These people, of course, were not representative of the vast body of the United States opinion, but their views were the opinions of a not inconsiderable portion. „ ~ Then too, added Mr Doidge, we must remember that glad as we were to have United States aid, they had only come into the war because they had to. Britain would always be the Motherland to New Zealand and never over one acre of New Zealand would any flag fly, save the New Zealand flag and the Union Jack. Dealing with the Scrimgeour case, Mr Doidge said that the Government had had an unquestionable loss of prestige over the matter, and its action had been exposed as weak, vacillating, and spineless. Members, he thought, ought to be told what was behind the whole business, for it seemed to him from the Appeal Board proceedings that someone was gunning for Mr Scrimgeour, and the public was qujck to resent anything that looked like vendetta. Mr A. S. Richards (Labour, Roskill), speaking of Mr Doidge’s reference to Mr Scrimgeour, denied that Mr Scnmgeour had been sacked. He had been suspended, certainly, but now he had been reinstated. ■ Mr Richards defended the Internal Marketing Division, and compared prices of butter, wheat, meat, wool, and cheese in New Zealand now with those during the last war. On these commodities in the three years of the last war, £18,000,000 excess war profits had been made, he said, but 'such was not the case in the present war. He contended that most high prices were occurring in commodities not confrolled by the Internal Marketing Division, and instanced peaches, which were selling in Auckland at Is 4d each. The reason, he said, for these high prices, was that shopkeepers in the more affluent residential suburbs forced up prices at the markets to such an extent that they were out of the reach of consumers with more moderate incomes. The Hon. W. Lee Martin, speaking of the settlement on the land of men returning from the war, said he hoped areas would be purchased by the Government in such a manner as to give the soldiers an opportunity to make good, and that they would not be faced with an overwhelming burden of debt.