DOMINION MIGHT BUILD SHIPS

Evening Star, Issue 23862, 17 April 1941, Page 3

DOMINION MIGHT BUILD SHIPS

SUGGESTION BY AUSTRALIAN BROKEN HILL STEEL SUGGESTED [Per United Press, Association.] AUCKLAND. April ](!. A suggestion that New Zealand should try to find a menus of building ships, even if only a few to help in meeting the Empire’s most urgent need, was made in an interview to-day by Mr A. W. Coles, a former Lord Mayor of Melbourne and a member of the Federal House of Representatives and managing director of Messrs G. J. Coles Ltd., who arrived by the American Clipper from San Francisco after a visit to Great Britain. “ I do not know what shipbuilding facilities yon have here,” Mr Coles said, “ and I cannot say what Australia has been doing in that way since I loft for England at the beginning of this ' year, but I feel very strongly that if wo can possibly build ships in these southern countries we ought to do it. We are dependent on our exports to Britain, and yet we expect her to provide vessels and take all the risks of conveying our produce to the market. “ Every shipyard in Britain. Canada, and the United States is going full blast night and day seven days a week on new construction and urgent repairs trying to overtake the Anything at all that we can do in this part of the world will he a help, and wo ought to do what, we possibly can. “If you in Now Zealand have the men and the facilities,” Mr Coles said. “ Broken Hill ought to be able to supply you with the steel. I know people will talk about the exchange difficulty, but that should not be allowed to stand in the way. It is not an obstacle as between Britain and America. Britain cannot possibly pay for nil that she is getting, and America is lending it to her without any thought of early repayment, fjurelv some sort of arrangement ought to he possible between Australia and New Zealand. Money and exchange arc only artificial, barriers to bo swept away to meet war needs. We do not realise that we are two wealthy countries, wealthy, in natural resources, manpower, and the ‘ will to win.”