EQUIPMENT FOR N.Z.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 179, 1 August 1941, Page 5

EQUIPMENT FOR N.Z.

I MATERIALS FROM CANADA MR. COATES RETURNS TO DOMINION UNITED STATES POLICY. ■ (Press Assn.) Auckland, July 31. ; Stating that much equipment New I Zealand required would come from 1 Canada, from materials that had been : reserved for Canadian defence, the i Hon. J. G. Coates paid a warm tri- , bute to the way he had been received ! in both the United States and Canada. I at a civic reception in the Town Hall ! Concert Chamber this afternoon on his . return by Pacific Clipper. Mr. Coates was greeted with loud cheers as he entered. He was weli corned by the Mayor. Mr. J. A. C. I Allum, on behalf of the citizens, and by the Minister of Defence, the Hon. I F. Jones, on behalf of the Government. Mr. Jones said the mission, from the i evidence he had already seen, had ! been a success. The Government had been delighted with the information received from Mr. Coates while he was abroad, but he fell sure that Mr. Coates had a surprise packet for them. They would be pleased to have him back in the War Cabinet, where his one aim, with that of the Government, was the prosecution of the war. Mr. Coates said *.iat he and the i Minister of Lands the Hon. F. Langstone. had decided on the way to America to divide into t.vvo parlies. Mr. Langstone, with his team of officers, would attend to the trade side of the mission, and he. with Colonel Williams, and an officer, would deal with weapons, munitions and war-like stores. This covered a very wide field, including, under the Lend or Lease Act not only tanks, planes, launches and all forms of surface craft,-but also ad that the country needed to maintain its maximum war effort. New Zealand was the Dominion least able to produce what its men required in these directions. There was no question of doubt, Mr. Coates said, that west of the Mississippi people were out 100 per cent, to aid Britain. In the Middle West, however, things were a littie different. Mr. Roosevelt had difficulties and problems, but the attitude of Mr. Wendell Willkie was taking was wholly admirable. It should not bo thought that America was not working. A few weeks ago only a few tanks were going from the United States. Now 16 Io 18 a day were coming from one factory in Detroit alone. America was at work. Its heart was in the work, and when mon got the up-to-date equipment that was being produced and enough of it. it would bo another story. Mr. Coates said ho immediately made contact with the British Purchasing Commission and the British Supply Commission, and they had been a great help. Mr. Harry Hopkins. supervisor of the Lend or Lease programme had given advice and assistance of great value. He had said: “We don’t want you to leave this country until you are perfectly satisfied you have got what you want.’’ It would be a groat help to be able to drop him a line saying there was something ho could do for us. The Secretary for War, Mr. 11. L. Stimson, the Under-Secretary for War, Judge Paterson, the Secretary i for the Navy, Colonel Frank Knox.; and the State Department had all been most helpful.