FOREIGN LANDS IN AMERICA

Southland Times, Issue 24113, 30 April 1940, Page 5

FOREIGN LANDS IN AMERICA

ACQUISITION BY U.S. PROPOSED SENATORS DISCUSS MOTION RESOLUTION PENDING IN CONGRESS - (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) WASHINGTON, April 28. In a forum broadcast to the nation, Senator Robert R. Reynolds (Democrat) and Senator Ernest Lundeen (Farmer-Labour) urged and Senator Lewis B. Schwellenbach (Democrat) and Senator Elbert D. Thomas (Democrat) opposed the resolutions pending in Congress empowering the United States to acquire possession of British, French and Dutch islands in the Caribbean and the Atlantic. Senator Lundeen asserted that foreign possession of American land was a violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Senator Schwellenbach. favoured the acquisition of strategic islands by honourable negotiation and disagreed with Senator Lundeen’s proposal to use force if necessary. He declared: “For us to take advantage of the temporary occupation of Britain and France in war elsewhere would be sneaking and would cause people everywhere to loathe and despise us.” Senator Reynolds said that Costa Rica, Cocos Island, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands also must be acquired to ensure the adequate defence of the United States’s interests. Senator Thomas insisted that unilateral action would destroy the “good neighbour policy” and would impair the faith of the smaller Latin American states in the United States. “If the doctrine of nonexploitation and non-interference is good for one it is good for all,” he said.

SUPPLY OF EQUIPMENT FOR NORWAY NO PREPARATIONS IN ADVANCE

RUGBY, April 26. A sentence in a recent speech by the Minister of Supply, Mr Leslie Burgin, that it had taken a little under a month to produce the equipment which is now being used by the British force fighting in Norway has been seized upon by German propagandists to prove the accuracy of their claim that Britain was intending to invade Norway before German aggression and that the German action was necessary as a counteroffensive. The fact is that a great portion of the equipment provided by the expeditionary force now in Norway was assembled for use in Finland and it was this equipment which was provided within a month of the possible need of it being known. The subsequent equipment was supplemented at a few hours’ notice with other articles when it became necessary to send a force to Norway as a result of the invasion by Germany. There is no truth whatever in the statement that the Ministry of Supply was prepared to equip a force for Norway before the actual invasion of that country by Germany was an accomplished fact. Lord Catto, Director-General of Equipment and Director of Stores for the Ministry of Supply, said recently: “You have heard that an expeditionary force to Norway has gone over fully equipped to fight a campaign under climatic conditions differing considerably from those experienced in other spheres of war. I wondered how the necessary equipment was supplied in such a short time. In the first place, the Ministry had purchased some equipment for use in Finland. That had to be greatly supplemented, and : t was supplemented through the complete cooperation of the many different trades in this country concerned in the supply of goods needed and the use in Scandinavia itself of the widespread buying organization of the Ministry of Supply. It was indeed an achievement to place that organization into use at such short notice and gives an instance of the great resources of Britain.” BRITAIN’S RESOLUTION TO WIN WAR RUGBY, April 28. Summing up the reactions of the Press and public to the Budget The Sunday Times says that one could desire no better evidence of the nation’s resolution to win the war than the reception to last Tuesday’s Budget. The British people cannot before have been taxed so heavily, yet the principal criticism against Sir John Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer, implied that he ought to have asked for more sacrifices, not fewer.

been received by South African growers can be explained largely by the fact that South African prices are quoted on a clean, not a greasy, basis Australian and New Zealand farmers have fared quite well under the United Kingdom bulk purchase. Decisive steps have been taken to speed up the wool trade with an export drive on an unprecedented scale. CANADIAN AIRMEN IN ENGLAND MINISTER PLEASED WITH TRAINING (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, April 27. The Canadian Minister of Defence (Mr Norman Rogers) today visited the first squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force to arrive in England. “From what we have seen the squadron’s training was a great justification of the Empire scheme,” he said. He described the reports received by the Supervisory Board of Air Training and Industry as “most gratifying,” and said that Canadian industry was seeing that aeroplane production in Canada was going ahead very well indeed. During his address to the squadron the Minister said: “I know well that you realize fully the honour implied in your selection and that you will be worthy of that trust.” PATROL ACTIVITY ON WESTERN FRONT (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, April 28. The French official communique reports patrol and artillery activity at various points on the front. German patrol activity on the Western Front on April 27 included an attack on a French outpost, from which the French withdrew under heavy artillery fire. Tile Germans, buried under an avalanche of French shells, were forced to retire. The French reoccupied the post. Last night French and German guns peppered each other in the Saar and Alsace areas.