AIRCRAFT POOL

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 22009, 10 April 1943, Page 5

AIRCRAFT POOL

10,000 IN UNITED STATES

NEEDS OF PACIFIC AREA REVIEW BY DR. EVATT '■<•'l iMfsa Assr..—Eifr. r«*i. ConyMgrtit) 1 Special Australian Correspondent) SYDNEY, April 10 1 it is estimated that the United | States has a reserve of 10,000 com- | bat aircraft from which the needs of ; the South-west Pacific theatre could be supplied, according to reports j emanating from General MacArthur’s j headquarters. This number is be- i lieved to be over and above lend- l lease commitments and assignments I to the various fronts. News analysts imply that this reserve represents a pool from which aircraft could be shipped to Aus- , tralia without in any way interfer- j ing with the present operations in other theatres. Speaking at the Commonwealth | Club in San Francisco, Australia’s : Minister of External Affairs, Dr. H. V. Evatt, is reported to have said that “all necessary equipment from | the total pool of the United Nations i must be available to halt Japan while the Allies are engaged in beating 1 Hitler first.” Dr. Evatt declared that Japan had acquired the most compact and per- ! haps the wealthiest economic empire I the world had ever seen. By acquiring and holding this new empire Japan was blockading the United Nations, and the longer this blockade j lasted the greater would be the difficulty of breaking it. “Beat Hitler First” Policy “Australia contends that while the United Nations have accepted the general principle of ‘beat Hitler first,’ there is within the framework of that policy not only the room but also the positive duty to do everything possible to prosecute the war against j Japan.” Dr. Evatt described General Mac- j Arthur as the greatest exploiter of ! air power in this war. “He is a man ; of sufficient inagination and courage 1 to scrap every rule of war which would not work out in the situation presented by new types of warfare,” said the Minister. “The South-west Pacific under General MacArthur is a theatre where every aircraft now delivered can be used against Japan in actual combat.”