NEW ZEALAND AIRPORTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 March 1943, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND AIRPORTS

ISOLATIONIST PRESS CHARGE “HELLO, SUCKERS!” NEW YORK, March 3. Headed “Hello, Suckers,” an editorial in the “Chicago Tribune” says: “There is a strong air of the fantastic about the New Zealand airports which Mr Melvin Maas described to Congress, some of which are of no military use. New Zealanders seized the opportunity of building every field they could possibly put to peacetime use. The entire cost, whether useful to American troops or not, was charged to the United States under reverse lease-lend. The fields are not being used by American commercial airlines but are being used by a British airline furnished with American aeroplanes and American gasoline through'lease-lend. This itself is a circumstance requiring investigation. “After the last war there was a persistent rumour that the French actually charged the United States rent for trenches in which members of the Ist American Expeditionary Force fought and died. The fiction appears to have come to the attention of the New Zealand Government, which found it not illogical. We sent troops and aeroplanes to defend New Zealand, and we are expected to pay the New Zealanders directly or indirectly lor the fields from which they operate. “Mr Walter Nash, the New Zealand Minister, suggests that a reciprocal arrangement may be worked out after the war. Apparently we will be allowed to use the airports we have paid for in New Zealand if we allow the rest of the world to use United States airports. That sort of thing is simply unbelievable if the conduct ot our affairs is in the hands of rational men The incident leaves little doubt as to the greeting, diplomatically left unspoken, which our delegation will receive at the Peace Conference. It will be “Hello Suckers.” “New Zealand’s record bears its own testimony as to whether or not Americans are ‘suckers,’ ” said Mr Nash in Washington. “New Zealand is not out to get anything, but is out to give. New Zealand is cooperating as one ol the United Nations so that the conflict in which all these nations are involved will be correctly resolved.”

OFFICIAL ADMISSIONS

' WASHINGTON, March 5. The Chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee (Mr Bloom) said that Mr Maas was inaccurate when he stated New Zealand constructed 105 airfields and debited the cost to the United States. Mr Bloom said that only six new airfields had been constructed in New Zealand since September. 1939. and only twelve enlarged The figure 105 is the number already existing in New Zealand in September, 1939. All were built with New Zealand’s own funds, not lend-lease. Although some of the airfields were made available to Amei ican forces no charge was made loi them in any way. . , Mr Bloom added that New’ Zealand was constructing airfields for the American forces in certain Pacific Islands outside New Zealand territory. This was done with New Zealand funds under reverse lend-lease, not involving a cash payment. MR.. FRASER’S COMMENT WELLINGTON, March 5. When asked to comment to-night on the “Chicago Tribune” editorial on the alleged construction by New' Zealand of airfields under lend-lease, the Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser) characterised the charge as completely la Ise and fantastic. “As I have already stated, said Mr. Fraser, “and as Mr. Nash is making it clear in America, the 105 airfields in New Zealand to which so much erroneous reference has been made were constructed before the war broke out in 1939, and entirely with New Zealand funds. Not one of the half-dozen. additional airfields constructed since that date, or the dozen or so which have been altered, some at the request of the United States authorities to enable them to be used for military purposes by our own and perhaps by United States air forces, have been made subject to any lendlease charge. , ... “I would like to make it entirely clear,” said Mr. Fraser, “that New Zealand has neither attempted to take nor will take under any circumstances any unfair advantage of the generous provisions of American aid. As Mr. Edward R. Stettinius (United States Lend-Lease Administrator) has recently indicated at Washington. New Zealand has already made available a large measure oi aid to the United States under reciprocal lend-lease and has undertaken to increase this to the fullest practicable extent. From the start of the war New Zealand has pledged full resources in men and materials, and representatives of the Allied nations have frequently generously acknowledged that pledge to have been faithfully carried out. “I would like to make it perfectly clear,” added Mr. Fraser, “that there is no British airline using New Zealand airfields, and consequently the charge that British airlines furnished with American aeroplanes and American gasoline througn lend-lease are so operating is as baseless and mischievous as the remainder of the ‘Tribune’s’ story.”

BRITISH AID TO U.S.A

LONDON. March 5

Britain had poured into American industry since September. 1939. 3,200,000,000 dollars for the production of aeroplanes, ordnance, tools, and ships, and also spent 1,750,000,000 dollars for the American aeroplane industry, as a result of which America, when she realised her peril, had built up an operating industry that, w'ould have taken a much longer time to establish without Britain's earlier assistance. These facts are given by Lord Halifax in an article in the “American Magazine,” rebutting Nazi propaganda about the British contribution to the American war effort.

Lord Halifax said Britain helped to triple the American machine tool industry, and thus facilitated the overnight conversion of many factories to war production. Furthermore, the British Shipping Mission was responsible for forming two American shipbuilding companies, one of which was headed by Mr. Henry Kaiser. SUPPLIES FOR INDIA WASHINGTON, March 4. Mr Stettinius announced that 295,501,000 dollars worth of American lend-lease goods had been sent to India since last March. He predicted a great increase in the future. The “New York Times" points out that Indian lend-lease included a great amount of machinery and machine tools to overcome the serious shortage, because American experts believed India could supply the entire India-Burma-China front, if properlv developed. It is honed to increase India’s steel output by 50.0er cent. Already 20 projects for the manufacture of munitions have been started there, with machinery from America. ____________