LEND-LEASE IMPORTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 3, 1 December 1944, Page 5

LEND-LEASE IMPORTS

LARGE REDUCTIONS FORESEEN. (Rec. 11.15 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 30. In a statement to the House of Commons on Lend-Leaso Mr Churchill said the end of the war against Germany would make possible large reductions in some British requirements. He expected that British needs would be reduced to not much more than half of what Britain was receiving in 1944. It was hoped that it would be possible to release more supplies for civilian consumption in due course and that there would be some improvement in the national diet. Also serious efforts would be made to rebuild the export trade which Britain had' deliberately given up in the extremity of her emergency, but without which she coulU not live. These were forms of self-sacrifice which it was both possible and right to make over a limited period, but which would become self-defeating if continued too long. Mr Churchill added that British representatives in Washington and the heads of the American departments concerned had jointly examined all these military and economic matters. Britain had put at their disposal every particular and every relevant fact in •her possession. Lend-Lease had stood Britain and the Allies in good stead. Britain had never asked for nor had she expected any assistance which was not strictly within the terms of the provisions. So that Britain could play a full part in continuing the struggn against Japan after the defeat of Germany a programme of Lend-Lease aid had now been planned with the American Administration to maintain Britain's fighting power against Japan without reduction in the proportionate efforts.