AUSTRALIA AND U.S. “IN SAME BOAT”

Southland Times, Issue 24109, 24 April 1940, Page 5

AUSTRALIA AND U.S. “IN SAME BOAT”

OPINIONS OF AMERICAN COMMENTATOR WASHINGTON, April 20. Major George Fielding Eliot, the wellknown military writer, expressed the opinion that a British-American-Netherlands-Pacific alliance would be ineffective because Britain and Holland at present had no freedom of action. He advocated instead an agreement with Australia and added that if the United States had the support of Australian bases and loaned money to improve them, it might be in a better position in the Pacific. He urged the building of an invincible navy, the fortification of the Philippines and Guam and co-operation with Britain and France in the East. Major Eliot, who served with the Australian Imperial Force in the World War, said: “Australia and America are much in the same boat. Australia could supply military and naval air bases for the United States and could contribute funds for their construction and maintenance. The United States is very much interested in Far Eastern supplies of rubber and tin.” Major Eliot also paid a tribute to the effectiveness of the British Navy and expressed the belief that the Allies held the advantage in Norway because they were able to transport troops and supplies and to challenge the Germans. Hitler’s attempts to maintain sea communications with Scandinavia had been disastrous. The British were effectively interrupting communications across the Skagerrak, where it would be useless for Britain to risk capital ships. It is informatively stated that Major Eliot, who is a native of New York, went to Australia with his parents at the age of eight. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in the Great War and participated in the action at the Dardanelles and on the Western Front. He was commissioned as Major in the United States Army Reserve Corps in 1928.