AIDING BRITAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23861, 11 January 1941, Page 10

AIDING BRITAIN

AMERICAN MEASURES BILL READY FOR CONGRESS ARSENAL FOR DEMOCRACIES By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received January 10, 7.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 President Roosevelt, eight Congressional leaders, five members of the Cabinet and Mr. W. S. Knudsen, Co-ordinator of Defence Production, at a conference, reached general agreement on a bill authorising war aid for the democracies. The President's private secretary, Mr. Stephen Early, termed the conference a full-dress review of Mr. Roosevelt's pledge to make the United States the arsenal for the democracies. The bill will be introduced simultaneously in both the House of Representatives and the Senate to-morrow. An ex-Senator, Mr. Ernest W. Gibsoil, Republican, succeeds Mr. W. A. White as chairman of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies. Mr. White resigned some days ago oil the ground that the job was too big for him. 200 Ships of 7500 Tons The Maritime Commissioner announced that President Roosevelt's plan to build 200 freighters of about 7500 tons each will be under way within 10 days. He added that legislation was necessary before the actual construction was begun. The Budget does not make any provision necessitating the presentation of separate estimates. A message from San Diego says Mr. Edsel Ford disclosed that he was considering the mass manufacture of tails, wings and fuselages at Detroit, from where they would be shipped to the Consolidated and Douglas assembly plants at Fort Worth and Tulsa to make 824 bombers for the BritishAmerican co-ordination scheme, suggested by the Defence Commission and the Army Air Corps. Mr. Ford said, however, that this would require several months of tool production at the River Kouge plants before lie would bo able to fill the orders. Caribbean Defence Command The Secretary of "War, Mr. H. L. Stimson, announced a new Caribbean Defence Command to strengthen defences in the western hemisphere. It will combine the present Puerto Rican and Panama Canal departments and the new Trinidad base under LicutenantGeneral Van Voorhis. It is understood in New York that Colonel W. J. Donovan, American military expert, who visited Britain in August in order to report to President Roosevelt on Britain's war effort and her military needs, is in Cairo as the "personal representative" of the Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Knox.

THE ISSUES AT STAKE

UNITED STATES' PART WIDENING SCOPE OF THE WAR (Keceived January 10, 7 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 9 President Roosevelt's personal representative in London, Mr. Harry Hopkins, left Lisbon by seaplane at 7 a.m. and arrived in London at 3 p.m. to-day. The British official wireless says no special programme of meetings lias been arranged for Mr. Hopkins. The Times says Mr. Hopkins' mission provides yet further evidence of the keenness of American interest in the issues at stake in the future, to which both nations are confidently looking forward, and the growing reality of the part played by America in the struggle. In this connection, the Times calls special attention to the words in Mr. Roosevelt's address to Congress in which ho referred to "all possible aid for Britain irrespective of the consequences." Nothing,, it says, more clearly marks the increasingly world-wide character which the war has assumed. No continent is now removed from its scope. "The task of reconstruction, not less than the effective prosecution of the ivar," the Times adds, "will demand common economic planning and a common economic policy. Frontiers have been swept away in Europe and a bridge built across the Atlantic. Theso things must not be undone. Negative means of approach have failed and will not serve. Positive organisation, based an equal and balanced consideration of the economic needs of all countries, is the only answer to Hitler's order, based on domination, and there is material on which work can bo begun now. "Colonial administration, for instance, offers a field in which cooperation in times of war and for the purpose of war should serve as a starting point for interdependence, not for Independence. It is the only condition 3n which the smaller nations, and some 3f the great Powers, too, can hope to retain that part of their independence ivhich is precious to them, and which s permanently valuable. That principally is the moral which can be drawn ipon with developments on both sides :>f the Atlantic, and the most useful pointer to the way of reconstruction, ivhich should begin more and more to 3ccupy our thoughts." Mr. Hopkins arrived in London while in air raid was in progress. Mr. George Slocombe, in a broadcast, said that luring the next few days it was expected Mr. Hopkins would have important conversations with the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, and other nembers of the Government.

NEW YEAR WISH PEACE FOR ALL PEOPLES (Received January 10, 0.1 r» p.in.) WASHINGTON, Jan. f) President Roosevelt, in a New Year message to King George, says: "My sincere wish is that the friendship between our two countries and our present endeavours may contribute to lastnig peace and security for all peoples." The message was in reply to His Majesty's, in which Iho King said: 'Common ideals of democracy unite our two peoples in an indissoluble bond of friendship."