AMERICA'S EFFORT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24828, 30 January 1942, Page 6

AMERICA'S EFFORT

FIGHT TO A FINISH MANY LESSONS LEARNED RUGBY, Jan. 28. Mr J. G. Winant (American Ambassador), speaking in London, said: " When the war came to the United States in the attack on Pearl Harbour we were taken by surprise. We were too far away from the tactics of this war to recognise fully that peace discussions by Japan were simply a cover for a treacherous attack. We evaluated that experience and openly and frankly faced facts. We came into this war on a different basis of preparedness than when we engaged in the last war. The regular army and navy quotas have been fillsd for a long time. The State Militia-for the last 20 years has had Federal status and has been in the field for a year. Selective service was adopted a year and a-nalf ago. With a national army already in the field, we had a large officer reserve corps organised and maintained since last war. With a population of approximately 140,000,000, we plan to recruit an army 0f.7,000,000. " We know the story of the Battle of the Atlantic, and if it is necessary that our navy takes time to re-estab-lish its supremacy in the Pacific with whatever auxiliary air force is required, it will be done, and its complete supremacy re-established. We have never had a better navy. Its fighting quality has already been witnessed in Macassar Strait, as also has that of the marines in Wake Island and the army under General MacArthur in the Philippines." Speaking of man-power in America, Mr Winant said they all knew how gallantly the youth of Britain had carried the high staff of courage in defence of their country, and he wished to tell them here thai there were no better young men in the world than the youth of America; none braver and none more generous or better equipped or more determined to see this fight through to a finish. More women successfully worked for their living in America than in any other country in the world. "Too many people here are influenced by the screen flashes of easy living, which presumed to oaint life at home for your amusement —that is not America," he said. „, .... There were two things, Mr Winant said that he wished to refer to regarding 'the war programme in the year during which he had been here. Every bit of Britain's war experience that had been so hardly gained had been given to the United States freely, and all of it was being built into the equipment that was being poured out of factories and shipyards to-day. The other fact was that war production was based on the machine tool industry. Germany recognised this years ago, and in the United States the automobile industry had been enlarged and rebuilt as a machine tool industry. American industry was prepared to deliver to-day because it had those tools. When the Prime Minister told them yesterday that in the last six months Great Britain was doubling her production of certain vital needs, he paid a great tribute to the workmen in Britain Mr Winant wished them to know that the workmen of America were doing the same kind of jobs. Referring to the arrival. of American forces in the British Isles, Mr Winant said that sea, land, and air forces had already taken their stations. It was the first step on the highway towards ultimate victory.