TO BE INCREASED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 24 June 1943, Page 3

TO BE INCREASED

AUSTRALIAN AIRCRAFT STRENGTH ANNOUNCEMENT BY MR CURTIN Canberra, June 23. The present aircraft strength of the R.A.A.F. will be increased by 60 per cent. Revealing this, Mr Curtin, Prime Minister, said new planes for Australia’s airmen fighting in the South-West Pacific had been secured after Washington negotiations by Dr. Evatt, Australian Minister of External Affairs. (Dr. Evatt arrived in America from Australia in April. A month earlier, the Commander-in-Chief of Allied Air Forces in the South-West Pacific. Lieut.-General Kenney, had met President Roosevelt in Washington and had also put the case for more planes for Australia.) Mr Curtin added that he was grateful to President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill for their support of Australia’s case. The number of United States air combat squadrons in the South-West Pacific slightly exceeded the number of R.A.A.F. combat squadrons, said Mr Curtin. The gross number of enlistments in Australia’s three services, A.1.F.. R.A.A.F. and R.A.N., was 820,500. Of these 530,000 had volunteered to fight anywhere in the world. Mr Curtin said the strength of the United States land forces in the South-West Pacific and South Pacific areas corresponded approximately to the strength of the Australian forces.—P.A.