Amazing USA/Australia Treaty 1946

[Private_collector]

Perhaps so, but due to short sightedness, where are all those spitfires now!?

[Lang]

While we regret losing various things years later, they do not have such great value at the time eg who cares about the Army saving say 100 Landrovers to bring out in 50 years time?

Where do you start and finish? If every enthusiast had his way we would be saving everything and the country would be full of warehouses and the harbours full of mothballed ships. When do you bring it out - 10, 20, 50 years later.

I think the best we can do is have a few gate guardians and donations to a few museums of items considered of significance and sell the rest to recover some money for the taxpayer.

What is significant? The lowly Hudson is much more significant to Australian history than a Spitfire as are several other types from Kittyhawks to Beauforts.

We can't save everything.

Lang

[Robert Bergeron]

Very nice reading. Thanks for posting this !

Absolutely true about modern politicians. Those were the days.

Cheers from Comox , Canada , North America.

[Ron King]

The Studebakers delivered to Australia at the end of WW2 were not lend lease.
They were in fact purchased out right and were unassembled in crates.
Most likely at near give away prices.

[Lang]

Yes that is what the treaty says. The majority of stuff Australia got from USA during the war was paid for on a commercial basis and those Studebakers were in the pipeline referred to in the treaty.

Australia had a vast fleet of trucks and certainly did not need those extra vehicles without a war going on. The reason they just didn't say we will cancel the orders and give you your money back was the USA had to keep their industry going and not have the rug pulled out from under them with a 90% cancellation of all orders overnight. Also why billions of dollars worth of vehicles and equipment were sold, donated, scrapped overseas and not brought back to USA. The treaty even says that Australia can not sell any American goods it possesses to USA buyers for the same reason.

As can be seen from the treaty Australia got relatively small amounts of Lend Lease which was balanced by the goods and services provided to USA by Australia for the million or so personnel who were stationed or passed through here.

The Lend Lease scheme was negotiated (against serious US opposition) when Britain totally ran out of money. Up to that point USA had demanded full payment ie transfer of British gold reserves, to cover all purchases. Even after the British Empire countries had their gold reserves raided to save the motherland the cupboard was bare. It was undoubtedly Churchill's finest hour when he went to USA and schmoozed Roosevelt to support the cause. There is no doubt that Lend Lease, and its extension to Russia particularly, was a war-winning decision.

Lang

[Mike K]

The Yanks had various Australian made equipment issued, wireless sets and even radar sets . An article in EA magazine explained how the Aust. built radar sets performed better than the contemporary US sets. The yanks did catch quickly though.

I had a AWA built transmitter with "US signal corps" etched into the front panel . AWA had placed a little panel over the US SC writing, the panel read AWA WS made in Australia .AWA also made copies of the classic HRO receiver for the US army, a guy in California has one of these, he was looking for a manual.

I have a Cash horizontal milling machine, made in Richmond, Melbourne . These were initially made for the USAAC during WW2. Another Cash owner has researched all this.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Lang

.....

The Lend Lease scheme was negotiated (against serious US opposition) when Britain totally ran out of money. Up to that point USA had demanded full payment ie transfer of British gold reserves, to cover all purchases. Even after the British Empire countries had their gold reserves raided to save the motherland the cupboard was bare. It was undoubtedly Churchill's finest hour when he went to USA and schmoozed Roosevelt to support the cause. There is no doubt that Lend Lease, and its extension to Russia particularly, was a war-winning decision.

Lang

It wasn't just Churchill, but a full press of the Royals too. The new king and Queen Mum weren't comfortable out of Europe and weren't sure how they'd be received. Accounts of the day said they found the Americans a funny lot with some peculiar personal and cultural habits, but gracious nonetheless. FDR was no isolationist, which helped greatly.

[Lang]

If you want to read about the British propaganda campaign to overcome US neutrality and get them into the war you should read "Selling the War" by Nicholas John Cull.

Churchill got his Lend Lease in 1941 without an American war committment so he was dancing in the streets when Pearl Harbour happened. His next successful sell was to have a Europe First policy probably against America's real interests in the Pacific.

Lang