LEND-LEASE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 21, 26 January 1943, Page 3

LEND-LEASE

NEW ZEALAND'S PART

(Rec. 1 ■ p.m.) RUGBY, Jan. 25.. "New Zealand, a country with a population of less than two millions, has provided almost a million and a half dozen eggs-, over two million pounds of butter, three million pounds of sugar, and 16 million pounds of beef, mutton, and pork," said Mr. Edward Stettinius, the American Lenld-lease Administrator, in a comprehensive review of. reciprocal lend-lease aid to the United States by Britain and her. Dominions and colonies and the Allied nations. He disclosed that supplies received by the * United States forces in the South and South-west Pacific areas from Australia and New Zealand' already included over '200 million pounds of, food. In consequence of this, the United States was sending practically no food ;to her forces; in: these areas, but was using shipping space for tanks and guns instead. For such aid there) was no possible yard-stick, either quantitative or financial, just as we could not measure by feet or dollars the value of the lives sacrificed to defeat the Axis. Yet this pooling of brains and resources might well prove of , equal, importance to the pooling of I weapons in shortening the war. • Mr. Stettinius said: "The supplies of food, which have already been furnished to the United States have resulted in serious civilian shortages both in Australia and New Zealand of meat, dairy, and egg products, and vegetables and canned goods. In addition, both New Zealand^ and Australia have undertaken large-scale expansion of farm production. to grow more foods which-our troops need. • They are also expanding the food processing indus- j try to provide more canned and dehydrated food rations for the United States forces in-the Solomons, New : Guinea, New Caledonia, and the New Hebrides. Both countries, again, have devoted a large part of their construction industry to building airfields, barracks, depots, repair plants, roads, and •many other facilities for the American forces. New Zealand also is furnishing blankets and clothing to the American troops and has a programme in progress for the manufacture of half a .million pairs of army shoes. In addition .to building naval and air bases, and facilities, bai-racks, and depots, New Zealand had built two large new hospital's for American troops, and had diverted so many medical supplies to the use .of our troops in the Solomons that for a time such common items as gauze, bandages, and surgical cotton were virtually unobtainable for civilian use.—B.O.W.