"BRITAIN WILL NOT LOSE"

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 December 1940, Page 9

"BRITAIN WILL NOT LOSE"

U.S.A. EXPERT’S ESTIMATE AN AERIAL WATERLOO [BY CABLE. —PRESS ASSN.—COPYRIGHT.] NEW YORK, December 3. General James Chaney, who has returned from Britain, where he has been acting as an official observer, described the air battles in August and September as decisive as Waterloo. “I do not believe that Britain will lose the war,” he said, “unless she becomes careless or over-confident. The German aeroplanes are good, but the present fortress warfare will never bring Britain to her knees. United States observers gained secret technical information worth hundreds of millions of dollars.” General Chaney expressed the opinion that Britain needs at least 10G destroyers as well as merchantmen, aircraft, and munitions, from the United States, and bases from Eue.

General Chaney said: “The air battles in Britain have been divisible into three phases. Firstly came those that'began on August 8. These featured wave after wave of German bombers, escorted by fighters. These attacked shipping and aerodromes, but they spared the port facilities that could be used for the invasion of Britain. ■ The second phase began on August 18 and finished on September 15. This was a destructive phase, but the German losses were immense. The third phase has been that of concentrated attacks. These are now continuing. Britain was overwhelmingly victorious in the first and second phases. This largely was due to ground detection facilitating the British fighter planes in their work and permtting the archies to shoot down one-seventh of the total German casualties.

General Chaney said that in his opinion the quality of the German petrol is high, while in some of their features the German engines are superior to those of Britain and America. On the contrary, the Germans bombsight is not so good as that used by the British. He also was of opinion that the German Messerschmitt planes were not capable of further improvement, due to inherent limitations.

He said: “The American planes are inferior in armament, compared to the British and German planes.” He added: “I am optimistic as to the outcome of the war as far as Britain is concerned.”

HUGE LOAN PROPOSAL.

NEW YORK, December 3

The New York “Herald-Tribune” states that Mr Marriner Stoddard Eccles, a prominent financier and banker, proposed, at a meeting of bankers, industrialists, andreconomists, a loan to Britain of 2,500,000.000 dollars against the security of a lien on the Empire’s gold production for five years, thus sterilising the gold and preventing it from inflating bank reserves in the United States. Mr. Eccles outlined his scheme in camera at a meeting of the National Industrial Conference Board. He declared it was to be expected that the British Empire’s gold would flow to the United States, where it would be bought by the Treasury. Thus it would be swelling the bank reserves, and increasing the danger of inflation. On the contrary, funds for the loan proposed by him could be raised by the sale Of securities, which gold could be earmarked as a backing, instead of passing the gold to the United States reserve. . Mr. Eccles’ views are being widely circulated through members of the Conference. They have aroused interest, owing to their being a controversy as to granting Britain credits, and also because Mr. Eccles is the first to propose a departure from the easy money policy.

NO ACT OF UNION. RUGBY, December 3. When he was asked in the House of Commons to give an assurance that no definite or implied act of union would be entered into or irrevocably committed between Britain and the United States without the Government first giving an opportunity for discussion, the Lord Privy Seal (Mr. C. R. Attlee) replied that he was not aware of any proposal of the kind mentioned, but he was quite certain that if any such plan were to approach the region of practical politics it could only be so after prolonged discussion by the legislative bodies on both sides of the Atlantic.

AMBASSADOR’S RESIGNATION (Recd. Dec. 5, 1 p.m.). LONDON, December 4. News of the resignation of Mr. Kennedy was received in Britain with formal expressions of regret, though more for the speeches which followed his return to America than for the retirement itself. ' An official connected with a Government Department, hinting that Mr. Kennedy would not again be acceptable in diplomatic circles in London, said: We are determined not to see our war effort “Kennedied.”

DEFENCE AND EMPLOYMENT (Recd. Dec. 5, 12.55 p.m.) NEW YORK, Dec. 4. A conference of Boards of Industrial Economics Division, estimated that defence contracts awarded before 'November 1, will provide an additional four million jobs throughout America, by June, bringing the total of employment far above the 1929 peak.

AUSTRALIAN MINISTER WASHINGTON, December 3. The Australian Minister, Mr. R. G. Casey conferred with Senator Hull (Secretary of State), on the situation in the Pacific., Mr. Casey said: “We exchanged some mutually satisfactory observations.” Mr. Casey,. appeared as a witness ! before the Export Control Board on behalf of an early release of large orders for machine tools for Australia. These are believed to be valued at .millions of dollars. * WORKS INSPECTED (Recd. Dec. 5, 10.55 a.m.) WASHINGTON, December 4. Mr. Casey, to-day, inspected Pratt Whitney’s Hartford (Connecticut) works. He lunched informally with Hartford business men. In the afternoon, he inspected the Colt firearms

and other war-supply plants. Mr. Casey, in a statement to the Press, said that the New England States, particularly Hartford, were most important for the Australian war effort. “We are dealing with 20 firms manufacturing machine-tools in New England. The rate of production of weapons and munitions is increasing. The range of Australian war production is dependent on deliveries of these machine-tools. We know that you have done your best for us in respect to early deliveries, and we know that you will not • misunderstand when I say that we are inevitably very anxious, for better and better deliveries, on which the lives of thousands of my fellow-countrymen are dependent.” Mr. Casey outlined the Australian development of war industries. He will later dine and speak at the Hartford Twentieth Century Club, made up as 200 leaders of big industries.