PACIFIC NEEDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25298, 7 August 1943, Page 5

PACIFIC NEEDS

AMERICAN WAR SUPPLIES INADEQUACY STRESSED (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, Aug. 6. “ The actual percentage of the United States war production allotted to the Pacific is only a small part of our total production,” says Mr David Lawrence, the Washington correspondent of the New York Sun. “The percentage is sb small that if the American people knew the figures they would ask how long it will be before Washington and London realise that we have a major war in the Pacific. “The public has been given the impression that the war in the Pacific has been stepped up and more supplies have been sent there. But while this is true the public does not know how little went to the Pacific in the first place. The real percentage pf our war effort allocated, to the Pacific is still only a small fraction of the total. If it were 30 per cent, observers familiar with the Pacific would be overjoyed.” ’(ln a broadcast on July 27, the Director of the Office of War Information, Mr Elmer Davis, said: “More than half of America’s war strength is deployed in the Pacific.”) “ The great need in the Pacific,” the correspondent continues, “is still for more- air-power. Even as little as one ninth's production of heavy bombers would make a great difference. It seems strange that pilots from New Zealand and Australia who should be used in defending the South Pacific are being sent to Britain, while American pilots are being sent to the South Pacific.”