AIR TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1942, Page 5

AIR TRANSPORT

U.S. SENATOR'S PROPOSAL

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

WASHINGTON, July 27

Senator Lee, declaring that the only possible chance of winning the war is by air transportation, and that it is utter folly for us to continue to attempt to build ships faster than Hitler could sink them, has submitted a resolution to the Senate to create a new board empowered to construct sufficient cargo and troop transport planes to ensure troops and supplies reaching the fighting lines. The board would be composed of the Secretaries of War and the Navy, the administrator of the War Shipping Administration, and the chairman of the War Production Board. The War Shipping Administration has urged the Man-power Commission to give first priority to the Merchant Marine in the assignment of men. The administration said that between now and early October the need for seamen would become the most urgent since the war began. It was stated that it was useless to produce war materials: unless they could be delivered, and that they could not be delivered unless sufficient trained officers and men were available to operate the ships. Approximately 90,000 seamen would be required by 1943... The Naval Committee of the Senate has approved the 974,000,000-dollar naval expansion programme, including 30,000,000 dollars for secret training and a mysterious new weapon. % The appropriation includes naval aviation facilities to turn out 2500 naval aviators a month.