The Pittsburgh Press (September 15, 1941)
Roosevelt reports –
$324 MILLION IN AID GIVEN
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Determination to crush Hitlerism repeated
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Washington, Sept. 15 (UP) –
President Roosevelt reported to Congress today that, since the passage of the Lend-Lease Act last March, $324,563,749 in war materials and other essential supplies and services have been transferred to nations resisting the march of Axis aggression.
In his second quarterly report, Mr. Roosevelt broke down the overall figure into $246,394,371 for materials and foods essential to warfare and $78,169,377 in essential services.
The $324,563,749 total – out of the $7 billion made available by Congress – compared with $75,202,426 which was the overall figure of transfers Mr. Roosevelt reported to Congress at the end of the first quarter of Lend-Lease operations.
Of this sum, however, only about 60% – $185,953,670 – actually had reached their destinations – in the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Africa, China and the Western Hemisphere – by Aug. 31. The great bulk of this – $118,074,538 – was in agricultural and industrial commodities.
Total actual Lend-Lease deliveries of aircraft to the fronts on that date were valued at only $6,016,145. Ordnance deliveries were valued at $35,498,809; tanks and other vehicles, $26,260,631; vessels, $2,313,720, and miscellaneous military equipment, $104,017.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Sam Rayburn revealed after a conference of Congressional leaders at the White House that President Roosevelt plans to send to Congress Thursday a special message requesting additional Lend-Lease funds. Mr. Rayburn refused to discuss the amount of money to be asked. A $6 billion sum has been mentioned frequently.
Of the new total, $97,809,722 represented armaments and materials transferred from the U.S. supplied on hand prior to passage of the Lend-Lease Act. Total transfers of this kind of supplies were limited to $1,300,000,000 by Congressional act.
The great majority of the Lend-Lease aid went to Britain, but the report also revealed small quantities had been sent to China, to some of the American republics, and to the exile governments of Poland, Greece, Yugoslavia, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands up to Sept. 1.
In a letter of transmittal, Mr. Roosevelt once more stated to the world America’s determination that the aggressive force of Adolf Hitler must be crushed.
*Must destroy evil forces
The President said:
The people of the United States know that we cannot live in a world dominated by Hitlerism. They realize that there can be no real peace, no secure freedom until we have destroyed the evil forces which seek to work us woe.
We are not furnishing this aid as an act of charity or sympathy, but as a means of defending America.
We offer it because we know that peace, resistance to aggression is doomed to failure; because the ruthless war machine which now bestrides the continent of Europe can be combated only by the combined efforts of all free peoples and at all strategic points where the aggressor may strike.
Confers on new plan
While dispatching the message to Congress, Mr. Roosevelt conferred with Budget Director Harold Smith on a request for a new Lend-Lease appropriation which is expected to be dispatched to Congress soon. No figure has been established for this new appropriation request but it reportedly will be in the neighborhood of $6 billion.
In the second quarterly report, Mr. Roosevelt said that of the $7 billion provided by the first Lend-Lease appropriation, $6,281,237,421 has been allocated to provide various types of assistance: $3,555,587,895 has actually been obligated by contract; and $388,912,115 actually expended.
Discrepancy explained
The discrepancy between the $324,563,749 in goods and services actually transferred and the $388,912,115 in expenditures was explained by the fact that the latter figure includes operating costs of the Lend-Lease program, plus cossa of factories built and of materials completed but not yet turned over to fpreign nations.
Adding the expenditure figure of $388,912,115 to the $97,809,722 representing goods transferred from appropriations made prior to the Lend-lease Act, Mr. Roosevelt arrived at a figure of $486,721,837 which he said represented the total dollar value of defense articles transferred and defense services rendered, plus other Lend-Lease expenditures, up to Sept. 1 of this year.
Free French aided
In addition to nations formally listed as recipients of Lend-Lease aid, it was learned that some American war machines and materials have been given to the Free French forces of General Charles de Gaulle. These materials, however, were listed under the section allocated for the United Kingdom and were advanced to the Free French by the British.
The breakdown of the $78,169,377 expended for essential war services included an unexplained item which appeared to indicate that some Lend-Lease funds are being expended for construction of non-American military and naval bases. The item was $11,734,998 for “military and naval bases.”
Mr. Roosevelt offered no indication as to whether those bases might be in South America or else here. But it was learned that the bases were not those obtained by this country from Britain in exchange for 50 overage destroyers.