“TIME FOR ACTION”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24738, 15 October 1941, Page 6

“TIME FOR ACTION”

UNITED STATES OPINION BRITAIN’S DIFFICULTIES APPRECIATED MR COATES’S IMPRESSIONS “ When we get things going, well, boy, we can go to town —That was what Mr J. G. Coates, a member of the War Cabinet, described as a typically American remark which was made to him when he was in the United States recently on an investigation of the possibilities of the Lease and Lend Act. Mr Coates was speaking to an audience of about 200 at the annual meeting last night of the Dunedin Manufacturers’ Association on the subject of his visit and the operation of the Act. and he commented that, from what he saw. that particular American was justified in his pride in the effectiveness of his country’s mass production methods. Mr Coates spoke in detail of many of the contacts he had made and of the consideration and assistance that he received from men prominent in United States administration. “Everywhere the book was open wide to us,” he said. “We were invited to go everywhere, and see everything.” A Growing Feeling

The swing of support for President Roosevelt’s foreign policy was discussed by Mr Coates. There was the isolationist opposition, a policy, he said, which was very easy to understand. The people on the east coast of America, east of the Mississippi, were wholly “ with ” Mr Roosevelt’s policy. They could see the danger ahead. “It is firmly fixed in the minds of most men, and is becoming more and more widely appreciated in the United States, that Hitler would not be satisfied with overrunning Europe, that his aim is world domination.” he said. “And who can say it is not? “ The people on the east coast of the United States are firmly convinced that America has to help to eliminate Hitler. West of the Mississippi,' there is a different opinion, no doubt due to the fact that this area is 800-to 1000 miles from the coast on either side. On the west coast, the concern is with the Far East, which is another viewpoint. Between them all, there is a growing feeling that it is time the United States was up and doing to give full effect to the principles enunciated by President Roosevelt. That was the setting when we went to the United States.” The Desire to Help

Mr Coates spoke of many of the men he had met prominent in the United States Government and its departments—Colonel Knox, a straight, hard speaker, whose view was that “ it is up to all of us to down Hitler Mr H. L. Stimson, of the War Department, quietly but firmly of the opinion that the United States had to do its share; his right-hand man, Judge Paterson, equally definite, but handicapped by the realisation that America itself was not prepared; ’Mr Harry Hopkitis, “a tall, thin mid-westerner,” also eager to help, but fully appreciative of the difficulties; Mr T. Burke, next to Mr Cordell Hull in the Department of State, who had given the delegation the greatest of assistance. All these men, and many others, had discussed New Zealand’s problems with understanding and the keenest desire to assist. Mr Coates said he had seen aircraft production and shipbuilding. and had been able to obtain an excellent insight into the potentialities of the United States as well as the attitude of the American people.