COMBINED STAFFS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24194, 9 February 1942, Page 4

COMBINED STAFFS

BRITAIN AND AMERICA ALL JOINT OPERATIONS

tßprd. 8.:?0 p.m.) WASHINGTON. Feb 7 The United States War Department has announced the establishment of a "combined chiefs of staffs group," composed of high Tinted States and British military officials, to co-ordinate the war effort. • The department added that this "amounts to a combined command post for the conduct of all joint operations of the two Governments in the war." The combined staffs will have their headquarters in Washington and will provide for full collaboration with the other united nations. The group will have two principal subdivisions, one of United States chiefs of staff, and the other of British military and naval officials in Washington. Personnel of Staffs The American representatives are: Admiral H. R. Stark, Chief of Naval Operations. General George C. Marshall, Chief of the Army Staff. Admiral E. J. King. Commander-in-Chief of United States Fleets. Major-Genera! H. H. Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Corps. The British representatives are: Admiral Sir Charles Little, a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty and Chief of Naval Personnel. l ,v ield-M a rslia I Sir John Dill, liaison officer in America co-ordinating the Pacific commands with Washington. Lieutenant-General Sir Colville Wemvss. Air-Marshal A. T. Harris. Brigadier-General W. B. Smith, formerly Secretary of the United States War Department General Staff, has been designated United States secretary of the combined chiefs of staff, and also as secretary of the joint hoard. The British secretary of the combined chiefs of staff is Brigadier V. Dvkes, who was for several years secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence and of the War Cabinet in London. Representatives of Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands Last Indies and China will take part with the combined chiefs of staff in considering matters concerning their national interests. While action on broad strategical questions will be in the form of joint recommendations to the American and British Governments, the board is empowered to act without delay in minor and immediate matters relating to current operations.

The new group will provide machinery for adjusting joint operations involving other nations in the united movement, such as China, the Netherlands Kast Indies, Australia and New Zealand. The group has been established to ensure complete co-ordination in the war effort, including the production and distribution of supplies and to provide full British and American collaboration in the prosecution of the war against the Axi.s. An integral anil important factor will be a Munitions Assignment Board headed by the Lease-lend Administrator, Mr. Harry Hopkins, which will have a counterpart in London, both with British and I'nited States membership. Major-General .James Burns, an army ordnance expert who served 011 the United States lend-lease mission to Moscow, will be secretary of the Munitions Assignment Board. The board's proposals will be submitted to the combined chiefs of staff for their recommendations to the heads of their Govern merits. It is pointed out that the British representatives in Washington will be in constant communication with the British Chiefs of Staff in London.