FLIGHT 10 ENGLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24627, 7 June 1941, Page 15

FLIGHT 10 ENGLAND

MR WILLIAM GOODFELLOW k speciaiTmission .AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS (0.C.) • LONDON. May 21. • Fifteen days after leaving Auckland by'the Clipper, Mr William Goodfellow arrived in London. He has come on a special mission for the New Zealand Government and also in connection with the business of Amalgamated Dairies, Ltd. . Mr Goodfellow reached Lisbon 10 days after leaving New Zealand. He was delayed there for five days owing to", congestion of traffic. There is a heavy demand on the air service from Lisbon to England,'and as many as 1800 people are said to have booked and are waiting to make the. flight. "The entire iourney was very comfortable and the accommodation was -excellent," Mr Goodfellow said, commenting on the trip. "I was in America for only four days, but as I have been there several times before, and have many friends there, I- was able to compare conditions with what . they were during previous visits. America Very Busy ." I came away from America with two irhpressions. One was that America to-day is extremely busy. Whereas she once had 10,000.000 unemployed, there may soon be no unemployed at all. but a shortage of labour.. This i? because there is tremendous activity , in the' war industries. Wages are rising rapidly, and also the cost ol goods, including food. "The other thing I noticed was, of course, America's attitude to the war. I found that on the Pacific coast public opinion was lukewarm, and there was a tendency among the people and the newspapers to say, 'What has the war to do with us anyway?' But as 1 travelled in the middle east and on to New York I found public opinion to be very strongly pro-British, with no doubt that American interest lies with Britain and her Allies. i "At Lisbon I stayed for the five days i at' the Palace Hotel, about 15 miles I from Lisbon. I saw mostly British and American people, and heard a number of rumours about the European situation. "The chief one concerned the possibility of Hitler's intention of going through Spain to the Mediterranean. Local opinion seemed to believe it was unlikely that he would do so. This was based on the assumption that if Hitler had. intended to go through Spain he would have done so long ago. ; Conditions in Spain "I also h3d an interesting talk with a very intelligent Portuguese taxidriver. He told me that the people of Spain were exceedingly short of food and were ' terrible to look at.' He also said that the Germans are demanding 60 per cent, of all Spain's production as payment for the financial and other assistance given by Germany to Spain during the civil war. " Lisbon is a crowded place, and the bottle neck of the traffic between England and America. So many hundreds have booked for the flight to England that priority has been given to Government and naval and military authorities: the result is that the ordinary, civilian finds it almost impossible to .complete his trip. I did hear that some people had been waiting since October."' :■-'..'-.'!: 1 During his stay in . Engiand,, which I may last about a month, Mr Good- \ fellow will meet two of his sons. One, | Mr Douglas Goodfellow, is serving as an . able seaman in the cruiser'Niad before ' going on to take a commission at H.M.S. i King Alfred. The other, Mr. Richard Goodfellow, will'arrive'shortly to join the Fleet Air Arm. He has also been i recommended for a commission.