TRUMAN REPORTS ON LEND-LEASE

Southland Times, Issue 25680, 24 May 1945, Page 5

TRUMAN REPORTS ON LEND-LEASE

Big Contributions To War Effort (8.0.W.) RUGBY, May 22. Lend-Lease and reverse Lend-Lease will be continued as an effective weapon in Allied strategy for the Pacific war, said President Truman in a report to Congress. He disclosed that to the end of March Britain had 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 her other Allies, including Russia and China. President Truman added: “While the bulk of the United Nations’ forces were engaging the Nazis in Europe, the Allied forces have succeeded in piercing the perimeter of the Japanese defences, and have established bases from which decisive offensives can be launched. Now all the might and power of the United States, the British Emipre, France, the Netherlands and our other Allies can be brought to bear, together with Chinese forces, against Japan. “Long and costly as the struggle ahead may be, it has been immeasurably shortened by the system of LendLease and reverse Lend-Lease. Adjustments and reduction in Allied war production and in the Lend-Lease programme will be possible, even as we and our Allies throw augmented forces into decisive offensives against the Japanese.” MILITARY NECESSITY At the same time, he continued, Lend-Lease and reverse Lend-Lease must continue as a military necessity on the 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 were being co-ordinated so that these nations would be devoting equitable shares of their industrial capacity to the war against Japan. Mr 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 of aggression and 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 could deliver from the bases they were now winning and had yet to win. The Allied strategy was to step up combined offensives without delay and strike Repeated, increasingly powerful blows until final victory. Shipments would continue to be made to Europe to prevent starvation and extreme hardship and enable local factories to increase their output of goods for the Allied forces under reverse Lend-Lease. SUPPLIES TO BRITAIN Detailing the Lend-Lease supplies to Britain, Mr Truman said that Britain had received 9500 planes, and twothirds of the armoured divisions in the 21st Army Group, together with several armoured brigades, were equipped with Lend-Lease tanks. Britain had received 3,185,000,000 dollars worth of food and other agricultural products. Of the 5,000,000,000 dollars reverse Lend-Lease received by the United States, Britain had 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 were supplied by Britain, and more than 1,000,000 American soldiers had been carried across the Atlantic and Mediterranean in British ships. The United Nations’ forces in Europe would continue to receive reverse LendLease supplies and services from Britain.

The President said that Russia had received 8,410,000,000 dollars worth of Lend-Lease supplies from the United States to the end of March. During the last year, American fats and oils comprised more than half the supplies consumed by the Soviet armies and the urban population. Lend-Lease agreements with France, Belgium and Holland would be continued as long as they were needed for military activities. Payment would be made for “long life” supplies, which, although they provided for war purposes, would have a residual peacetime value.

Mr Truman concluded his report by correcting certain “incorrect and exaggerated” rumours circulated in the United States concerning Lend-Lease. It had been alleged that Britain had used Lend-Lease supplies to benefit her export trade. During the war, the British export trade had declined drastically, but that of the United States had not fallen substantially. In fact, in certain areas, it had increased above prewar levels. The allegation that Britain removed United States labels from Lend-Lease goods and substituted her own had been proved by investigation to be without justification.

The story that Britain chargee} high rentals for airfields was untrue. The British had built more than 100 airfields at a cost to themselves of 440,000,000 dollars and ' turned them over to the United States as reverse Lend-Lease. They maintained the fields at a cost of many million dollars, but only actual cost values were entered on LendLease 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 nor buy from them. All petrol went into a common pool and both the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces drew from it.