LEND-LEASE AID

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25852, 24 May 1945, Page 5

LEND-LEASE AID

SUPPLIES FROM AMERICA ASTRONOMICAL FIGURES PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S REPORT RUGBY. May 22. Lend-lease and reverse lend-lease will be continued as an effective , weapon of Allied stiatcgy for tte Pacific war, said President Trumah in a report to Congress. He disclosed that to the end of March, Britain received 12,795,000,000 dollars’ worth of lend-lease supplies from the United States. To January 1 Britain spent 3.352,000,000 dollars on supplies and services to the United States as reverse lend-lease, and another 2.000,000,000 dollars in aid to the other Allies, including the U.S.S.R. and China. President Truman added: “ While the bulk of the United Nations forces were engaging the Nazis in Europe the Allied forces succeeded in piercing the perimeter of the Japanese defences and established bases from which decisive offensives can be launched. Now all the might and power of the United States, the British Empire, France, the Netherlands, and our other Allies can be brought to bear together with the Chinese forces against Japan. Long and costly as the struggle ahead may be, it has been immeasurably shortened bv the svstem of lend-lease and reverse lend-lease. Adjustments and a reduction in Allied war production and m the lend-lease programme will be possible even as we and our allies throw in augmented forces into decisive offensives against the' Japanese. “At the same time ” said the President, “ lend-lease and reverse lend-lease must continue as a military necessity on a scale required to build the overwhelming power which alone could save American and Allied lives and bring an early and complete end to the war. Plans for industrial reconversion in the United States, Britain and Canada are being co-ordinated so that these nations will devote equitable shares of their industrial capacity to the war against Japan.” ' Strategy in Pacific

President Truman warned Congress that Japan’s main forces had not yet been engaged. The unconditional defeat of a nation of 70,000,000 people, strongly entrenched in Asia, after seven years’ aggression, a nation whose soldiers died vainly in battle rather than surrender, would be a tremendous task that would require every ounce of power the Allies coula deliver from the bases they were now winning and had yet to win. Allied strategy was to step up the combined offensives without delay and to strike repeated and increasingly powerful blows until final victory. Shipments would continue to be made to Europe to prevent starvation and extreme hardship and to enable local factories to increase their output of goods for the Allied forces under revise lend-lease.

Detailing lend-lease supplies to Britain President Truman said that Britain’ had received 9500 planes, while two-thirds of the armoured divisions in the Twenty-first Army Group, together with several armoured brigades, were equipped with lend-lease tanks. Britain received 3,185,000,000 dollars’ worth of food and other agricultural products. Of 5,000,000,000 dollars reverse lend-lease received by the United States, Britain supplied 3,352,000,000 dollars. Fifty-four per cent, of the supplies and services for the great campaign which led to the defeat of Germany was supplied by. Britain. More than 1,000,000 American soldiers were carried across the Atlantic and Mediterranean in British ships. The United Nations forces in Europe would continue to receive reverse lend-lease supplies and services from Britain.

The President said the U.S.S.R. received 8,140,000,000 dollars’ worth of lend-lease supplies from the United States to the end of March. During \he last year American fats and oils comprised more than half the supplies consumed by the Soviet armies and urban populations. Lend-lease agreements with France, Belgium, and ’Holland would be continued so long at needed for military activities. Payment would be made for “long-life” supplies which, although provided for war purposes, would have a residual peace-time value. New Zealand’s Help Of almost 5,000,000,000 dollars’ worth of reverse lend-lease received by the United States, 171,000,000 was from New Zealand, President Truman stated. New Zealand and Australia, received 1,257,089,000 dollars’ worth from America. The report said the United States had given the various Allies a total of 38,971,000,000 dollars’ worth of lend-lease, exclusive of consignments valued at 874,000,000 to the commanding generals for transfer in the field to lend-lease countries. Actual exports totalled 29,310,000,000 dollars, distributed as follows:—Russia, 8,410,000,000 dollars; Great Britain, 12,775,000,000 dollars; Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean, 3,813,000,000; China, and India, 2,023,000,000; Australia and New Zealand, 1,257,089,000; Latin America, 226,000,000, and other countries, 806,000,000. The Associated Press of America points out that the report failed to explain the difference between the total aid and the actual exports except for 4,164.606,000 dollars for “shipping and other services.” The United States received almost 5,000,000,000 dollars' worth of reverse lend-lease, including 720,000,900 dollars from Australia, 171,000,000 from New Zealand, and 411,000,000 from India. The report denounced as fiction stories that Great Britain was not getting any meat from Canada because she could get it from the United States under lend-lease, and that the United States had furnished vast quantities of cigarettes to other nations under lendlease. Rumours Unfounded The President concluded his report by correcting certain “incorrect and exaggerated ” rumours circulated in the United States concerning lendlease. It had been alleged that Britain used lend-lease supplies to benefit her export trade. The iact was the United States controlled post-war availability of all lend-lease materials. During the war the British export trade declined drastically, while that of the United States had not fallen substantially. In fact, in certain areas it had increased above pre-war levels. The allegation that Britain had removed United States labels from lend-leqse goods and substituted her own -had been proved by investigation to be without justification. The story that Britain charged high rentals for airfields was untrue. The British built airfields at a cost to themselves of 440,000,000d01, and turned them over to the United States as reverse lend-lease. They maintained the fields at a cost of many millions of dollars. Only actual cost values were entered on lend-lease accounts. It was also untrue that the British bought aviation petrol at 20 cents a gallon and resold it at 55 cents. The United States did not sell petrol to the British or buy from them. All petrol went into a common pool, and both the R.A.F. and the U.S.A.A.F. drew from it.