U.S. MACHINERY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 8 January 1944, Page 2

U.S. MACHINERY

COMPLETE DEPENDENCE OF UNITED NATIONS REVELATION BY LEND-LEASE REPORT (Rec. 10.15 a.m.) London, J an . 7. The dependence of the United Nations on the United States for machinery concerned has been virtually complete, according to the latest United States lend-lease report. United States shipping to Britain in the past two and ahalf years carried 2 per cent, of United States, production of such machinery with the help of which 8.000,000 acres were brought into farm production. Whereas before the war the British imported two pounds of food for every pound they raised, now they raise two for every one imported. Bombers take off from long, level fields which four years ago were among the best farms. New acreage had to be created from marshes and hammered out of rough soil and hills in the western countries. These maiginal lands could not be drained, cleared or converted to food production without a heavy type of farm power available only in America United States troops in Austraila and New Zealand are being led almost entirely locally under lend-lease, which would have been virtually impossible without United States farm machinery. The United States has sent over 1,000,000 dollars worth of machinery to India to assist the country to meet critical food shortages. Smaller amounts have been sent to North Africa and the Middle East. North Africa is now producing food not only for her own population but for the armed forces and southern Italy. Hundreds of thousands of tons of shipping space have been saved by the increase in food production achieved by countries in the Middle East. COMPLAINT ANSWERED The report answers a complaint that petrol had been drawn too heavily from the United States with the statement that this year a much larger part of the oil needed in the Mediterranean' will come from sources under British control. He gives a pledge that after the war all nations will have a fair and equal access to oil supplies The report states that the United States is actually exporting a smaller quantity of petroleum products than before the war. “We are using for our own war industry and armed forces about 88 per cent, of the oil we produce. Additional production of crude petroleum in the United States since the outbreak of the war and curtailment of our non-essential civilian demands has been caused not by lendlease but by the demands of our war industries and armed forces.” President Roosevelt added that production in the Middle East already surpassed pre-war production and greatly exceeded two years ago when the whole area was threatened with the danger of falling into Nazi control.