REVERSE LEND-LEASE

Korero (AEWS), Volume 3, Issue 7, 7 May 1945, Page 22

REVERSE LEND-LEASE

NEW ZEALAND TO UNITED STATES

A KORERO Report

Supplies and services provided by Australia and New Zealand to United States forces in the Pacific theatre in the six months to June 30, 1944, increased materially in quantity and in monetary value over the totals for the preceding six months. This is shown in the 17th Report to Congress on Reverse Lend-Lease operations. This increase was the more remarkable because most of the United States forces previously based in Australia and New Zealand had been moving out of these countries as the battle lines advanced far northward into the Philippines and the islands of the Central Pacific. The increase in reverse lend-lease in this theatre reflects in some measure the very important part played by Australia and New Zealand in supplying the forces under General MacArthur with the tre-

mendous quantities of equipment and other supplies required for the great operations in the Philippines and beyond, which are still under way. Both Australia and New Zealand are devoting 18 per cent, of their total war budgets to paying the cost of the reverse lend-lease programme for the United! States forces. Supplies, equipment, services, and facilities have been provided by Australia and New Zealand to meet many of the needs of all branches of the United States Army in this theatre, including the Quartermaster Corps, Ordnance, the Medical Corps, the Engineers, the Signal Corps, the Transportation Corps, and the Air Corps. One of the most vital supply responsibilities undertaken by Australia and New Zealand for United States forces has been the production of $36,500,000 worth of landing

craft, barges, tug boats, and other craft essential to the sucessful prosecution of an amphibious campaign in the Philippines and lesser islands over thousands of miles of ocean. Ship-building, virtually a new enterprise for New Zealand, has, as a result of this activity, already reached the rank of a substantial industry. As a further reverse lend-lease contribution, more than five hundred ships have been repaired and refitted in New Zealand without cost to the United States. By June 30, 1944, well in time to meet General MacArthur’s needs for the invasion of the Philippines, 9,500 landing crafts of varying types had already been delivered by Australia and New Zealand under reverse lend-lease.

In clothing alone, New Zealand has made a large contribution towards the equipment of United States forces in the Pacific. This includes 240,000 Army blankets, 675,000 pairs of socks, 25,000 leather field jackets, and more than 15,000 pairs of gloves. New Zealand has also provided the United States Army with 6,000 tents and with nearly 50,000 mattresses.

New Zealand has provided hospital beds, mainly in specially constructed and equipped hospitals, for no fewer than 8,000 United States servicemen, at a time when accommodation in the Dominion for civilians in both public and private hospitals totalled only 13,000 beds. Camps, hospitals, warehouses, and other buildings constructed for the United States forces in New Zealand at a cost approximating §29,000,000 have utilized more than one-half of the annual build-ing-capacity of the Dominion. New Zealand, like Australia, provides under reverse lend-lease all rail, air, motor, and water transportation costs, including freight, port and harbour charges, stevedoring and wharf handling charges. She also pays the cost of telephone, telegraphic, and cable services under reverse lend-lease. From the point of view of tonnage, the food provided by Australia and New Zealand has been by far the most important supply item handled by the Quartermaster Corps. To June 30, 1944, Australia and New Zealand have supplied about 1,850,000,000 lb. of food for United

States forces in the Pacific. Of this vast total, 579,290,000 lb. have been supplied bv New Zealand.

This includes not only great quantities of fresh foods, but also canned and dehydrated foods locally grown and processed under a programme undertaken especially for United States forces by Australia and New Zealand. To this end, in vegetables alone, New Zealand has provided 63,050,000 lb. of potatoes, 52,240,000 lb. of other fresh vegetables, and 18,260,000 lb. of canned vegetables. The New Zealand Government has made great efforts to increase the production of vegetables solely for the purpose of meeting United States requirements. More than 5,000 acres of pasture land have been taken over by the Department of Agriculture and transformed into market gardens producing up to 4,500,000 lb. of fresh vegetables a month for the United States, New Zealand, and allied armed forces. Over 1,000 employees are now working on the Government vegetable-growing programme, many of them women who have been specially recruited and trained for this work. Large quantities of these vegetables are dehydrated and canned in special plants constructed since the war began. Virtually the entire output of these plants is going to American and New Zealand forces in the Pacific area. Of more than 400,000,000 lb. of beef and other meats supplied by Australia and New Zealand to United States forces, New Zealand has provided 81,500,000 lb. of beef and veal, 5,250,000 lb. of lamb and mutton, 21,890,000 lb. of pork, and

31,210,000 lb. of bacon and ham. To this can be added 51,570,000 lb. of canned meat, and 14,560,000 lb. of other fresh and processed meat.

It may be surprising to some NewZealanders to learn that in the period under review the country provided for the United States forces a greater weight of sugar than of butter : 45,590,000 lb. of sugar were supplied, and 30,520,000 lb. of butter. To the butter total, however, may be added the contributions of cheese (9,120,000 lb.) of evaporated milk (19,470,000 lb.), and of other dairy products, (27,160,000 lb.).

To meet these great and increasingUnited States requirements for foodstuffs while at the same time maintaining thesupplies which New Zealand is committed to send to the United Kingdom, the NewZealand Government has imposed strict rationing of butter, cream, milk, sugar, and meat commodities of which there is normally a vast surplus over local consumption. The people of New Zealand accept these minor manifestations of the exigencies of war, as most of them fully appreciate their good fortune in living in a country so far removed from the actual horrors of war. Indeed, now that the demands of starving Europe are increasing, many New-Zealanders have voluntarily suggested that their meat ration be further curtailed in order that the people of Britain, so long in the front line, may not be compelled to pull in their belts still further for the purpose of sharing what little they may have with the famine-stricken victims of Nazi Germany.