Supplies to the Middle East

Those 26 U.S. freighters will actually arrive "soon" in the Middle East with sorely needed supplies for the British Army. This time the Maritime Commission says so. And when they get there, a potent Presidential envoy will be there to study, firsthand, the problem of U.S. Aid-for-Britain-in-the-Middle-East. Often a rumor but never afloat, the 26 freighters were reported on their way soon after the President withdrew the Red Sea from the combat zone. Last week's announcement was official--the 26 ships were on the way, would land at Red Sea ports; none had arrived as yet.

There was less mystery about the Presidential envoy. For three months Averell Harriman, tall, efficient expediter of the Lend-Lease Act (his official title is Special Representative of President Roosevelt on Material Aid to Britain), has been in London, trying to coordinate British needs with U.S. production. Some of his tasks have been tremendous (conferring with British officials on the reorganization of U.S. aircraft production when bombers became the primary need). Some have been trivial (calming the British Tobacco Commission, which feared British soldiers, raised on "Gaspers"--Woodbines, Gold Flakes, Player's--might not like Luckies and Camels).

One of Harriman's problems has been to convince both the British and U.S. Governments that they would save time (and reduce hazards) by shipping supplies for the Middle East direct to Africa instead of to England for transshipment. His journey last week was to see how his recommendations work out. Probabilities were that he would not stop at the Middle East, but keep right on across the Pacific to report to President Roosevelt. U.S. visitors to wartime London are profoundly stirred, and most of them are swept by an overwhelming desire to tell the U.S. about it. (Londoners, who grow depressed between bombing raids, and belligerent when the raids come, say wisely that jittery Washington is just suffering from the disease of not being bombed.)

With Harriman on his flight to Lisbon, to Bathurst and across the Sudan to the Middle East were U.S. experts on trucks and planes. If Mr. Harriman could watch the 26 freighters land their cargoes despite Hitler's threat to sink ships in the Red Sea, if he could watch U.S. equipment in action in the battle for Suez, he would have more and better news to report to the President than any other emissary since Harry Hopkins.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.