U.S. MILITARY PREPAREDNESS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28658, 7 August 1958, Page 18

U.S. MILITARY PREPAREDNESS

Christchurch Man’s Impression

Through the visit to Christchurch of the United States Air Force Globemasters used in the Antarctic a close association has grown- between the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce in Greenville, South Carolina.

Mr W. G. V. Fernie, a past president of the Canterbury chamber, who was in America recently, told a luncheon meeting yesterday that the Greenville chamber had taken the same interest m the Donaldson Field airport, the base of the Globemasters, as the Canterbury chamber had in the Christchurch airport. Donaldson Field was a military airport, but the chamber of commerce had been able to assist in finding homes for the men and in other amenities.

While visiting Greenville at the end of May, Mr Fernie saw something of the preparedness of the United States. On the Saturday he was there an alert was received from the Pentagon and 50 Globemasters took off at intervals of half an hour for their European base in Germany. “There is a tendency for us to discount the power of the free world, when we hear so much about the other side,” Mr Fernie said. “What I have told you gives you some idea of the preparedness of the American military machine.”