STUPIDITY ALLEGED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21816, 12 September 1945, Page 4

STUPIDITY ALLEGED

N.Z. AND LEND-LEASE DEALINGS WITH U.S.A. (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 12. Could any country be found that had acted as stupidly as New Zealand; asked Mr. W. A Bodkin (Opp., Central Otago) in his Budget speech in the House of Representatives last night when dealing with the question of lease-lend. They found lense-leno suddenly terimnated and New Zealand finished with a deficit running into millions. , He said the Opposition had frequently pointed out that the Dominion was buying from the United States at wartime prices and selling at pre-war prices. Canada, on the other hand, called on America to pay at wartime prices, and Canada, from being, a debtor country, was now a creditor nation and in a position to help the Motherland. „„ . T , The Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash had told the House that any leaselend differences would be written oft out that was not clear to-day. The man who had piloted the lease-lend bill through the American Congress had stated that there would be a reckoning day. , New Zealand got an increase from Britain to the tune of £35,000,000 and increases for the future, he added. Whv didn’t the Government do the same with America? On to-day’s accounting the United Kingdom had been charged more for produce supplied by Ne-v Zealand than had America under lease-lend. __