YEAR OF DECISIVE ACTIONS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22785, 8 January 1944, Page 5

YEAR OF DECISIVE ACTIONS

Statement By President Roosevelt Allied Unity Bodes 11l For Axis Strength Derived From Lend-Lease British Official Wireless RUGBY, January 6. President Roosevelt stated today that all nations were giving what they could for victory when he transmitted to Congress his thirtieth lend-lease report covering the period ending November 30. The President emphasised that neither lend-lease statistics nor dollar funds of any kind could measure the relative contributions of the nations towards winding up the war. “The coming year will be a year of decisive actions in the war,” he stated. “By combining their strength the United Nations have increased the power of the common drive to defeat the Axis. We have already beaten back the enemy on every front on which we are engaged. At Teheran and Cairo plans were agreed on for major offensives which will speed the day of victory. With the closer unity there achieved, we shall be able to strike ever-increasing blows until the unconditional surrender of the Nazis and the Japanese, High Cost of War "Mutual aid contributed substantially to the strength of the United Nations. The flow of lend-lease assistance from the United States to the Allies and reverse lend-lease from the Allies to us has increased the power of our united offensive. Some countries like the United States and Canada, which are located away from the fighting theatres, are able to make available to other nations large quantities of food and manufactured arms. Others, like the Soviet Union and China, require virtually everything they can produce to fight the enemy on their own soil. "The cost of the war to us and our Allies is high. The more fully we 1 can now mobilise manpower, supplies, and other resources for the decisive tasks ahead, the lower Will be the final cost of victory. The United Nations in the new year are stronger and more firmly united than ever before. The Germans and Japanese will both soon learn that to their sorrow.” A wealth of detail about vital United Nations war transactions is contained in the latest United States report on lend-lease. The cost of lend-lease aid from March, 1941, to the end of November last war 13.5 per cent, of all the United States expenditure on the war. American .food is helping to maintain rations in the Soviet Army and of British soldiers and war workers and others on the front or behind the lines. Lend-lease is an essential element in the United Nations strategy to win principally with their own weapons Their factories use principally thenown raw material and equipment. Their people raise most of the food they eat. Lend-lease supplies have been an essential supplement to their own resources. Aircraft and Ordnance Aeroplanes, guns, raw materials, food and other other goods transferred were 87 per cent, of the total aid to date. Transfers of finished munitions were 53 per cent, of the total. Industrial items were 21 per cent, and foodstuffs and other agricultural products 13 per cent, of the total. The upward trend has been due in a large part to a sharp rise in aircraft, ordnance and other munitions transferred. Munitions were 61 per cent, in the first 11 months of 1943. The charter of ships and the ferrying of aircraft were most important services, being more than half the value of all services. Much of the remainder consisted of training combat pilots, repairing warships and merchantmen and assembly of aircraft abroad, and similar war services. More than 600,000,000 dollars has been expended on facilities for the production of planes and other war requirements in the United States. This represented a substantial addition to our own industrial capacity. These plants have not been transferred to foreign Governments. Some are producing munitions for our armed forces. Our Allies have been able to strike more damaging blows, and are fighting more strongly than ever by the side of our own forces. The war will be much shorter for it. This is the principal war benefit the United States receives under the lendlease programme. In addition to the United States receiving directly as reverse lend-lease, without payment, substantial supplies provided by the Allies within the limit of their material and financial resources. Huge Expenditure Up to last June the United Kingdom spent for reverse lend-lease to the United States 871,000.000 dollars, New Zealand 51,000,000, and India 57,000,000. The figures did not include supplies and services to the United States forces m North Africa, Sicily, Italy and elsewhere. Similar aid is being provided by the Belgians and French. The United Kingdom, New Zealand and India also agree to provide, without payment, raw materials, commodities and foodstuffs previously purchased bv us in Southern Rhodesia and the Colonial Empire;