CO-OPERATION OF ALLIES

Southland Times, Issue 24002, 18 December 1939, Page 8

CO-OPERATION OF ALLIES

FINANCIAL JOURNAL PLEASED VAST RESOURCES IN U.S.A. (British Official Wireless) (Received December 17, 7,30 p.m.) RUGBY, December 16. The British and French financial agreement is welcomed in the columns 'of The Economist. An article on “Entente Financiers” declares: “It is, we may hope, the first step in the process of economic collaboration that will extend beyond details of finance or the limitations of war economy.” Discussing the consequences of the agreement reached between France and Britain, it sums them up in the sentence: “The foreign assets of the two countries are to be pooled” and in this connection it calls attention to an interesting estimate made this week by the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, according to which the gold, dollar balances and marketable American securities belonging to the United Kingdom and France are about 7,400,000,000 dollars or £1,850,000,000. POLISH SQUADRONS IN R.A.F. FORMATIONS ENTIRELY SELF-SUPPORTING (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, December 16. A detachment of Polish airmen who have been training to become the first of several Polish squadrons to be incorporated in the British Air Force will don Royal Air Force uniforms tomorrow. These squadrons will be entirely self-supporting. The pilots, observers, gunners, wireless operators and the ground staff, which is charged with the maintenance of aircraft, will be exclusively Polish. The first detachment includes several airmen who have gained their wings since the war began and also a sergeant who was brought down by the Germans during the fighting in Poland and who escaped from his own country after it had been overrun by the enemy. The performances in the air of the members of these Polish detachments have evoked the enthusiasm and admiration of members of the Royal Air Force under whose instruction they have been trained. FIREFIGHTING IN LONDON PROTECTION FOR CONTROL ROOM (British Official Wireless) (Received December 17, 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, December 16. The efficiency of London fire brigades will be increased when the regional control room is transferred to new quarters protected from the direct hit of even a heavy bomb. The regional fire officer has more than 850 fire pumps at his immediate disposal and in an emergency can call on all London’s fire appliances, including 20 knot fire floats, which have just been added to the fleet which protects London’s waterfronts. These floats are fitted with two powerful turbine pumps, each with a capacity of 750 gallons a minute at lOOlbs pressure a square inch and also are equipped with powerful searchlights. ,