BRITAIN'S GRATITUDE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 24 March 1941, Page 7

BRITAIN'S GRATITUDE

FOR AMERICAN HELP. MINISTER'S EXPRESSION. (United Press Association—Copyright) (British Official Wireless.) (Bee. 10 a.m.) RUGBY, Mar. 23. The president of the Board of Trade (Captain 0. Lyttelton) paid a warm tribute to the statesmanship of President Roosevelt and the far-sightedness of the American people in .legalising the Lease or Lend Bill when he opened Aldershot's War Weapons Week to-day. "I cannot help thinking this is the most generous gesture that has ever been made," said Captain Lyttelton.

"No Englishman should ever forget what the United States has done for us in the year 1941. In the deathly hush which we feel may be the prelude to terrible, events, we have suddenly heard the heart beat of America. "There is no one here who should not think to himself every morning of what has been done for us."

While stressing the value of American aid, Captain Lyttelton insisted at the same time that Britain should not show she had exhausted all the means of helping herself. That this was not so he made clear by recounting to his Aldershot audience the striking sums "per head" raised by towns ?r,d villages throughout the realm iu support of the war effort. The little town of Hockmoiidwike, in Yorkshire, for instance, had saved £42 7s per head in the War Weapons Week. Silsden, also in Yorkshire, had saved £3O 2s 4d, while Edinburgh's contribution was the equivalent of over £25 per citizen. Advocating cutting down luxuries by every citizen, Captain Lyttelton said: "We face a simple alternative. Either we must cut down the numbers of our fighting forces or reduce the standard of their equipment, or we must reduce our standard of living. I think everyone would say we will suffer any privations necessary to gain victory."