Australia and Lend-Lease

[Lang]

8. (a) The Government of the United States, in partial consideration of the payments to be made by the Commonwealth of Australia pursuant to section 3 of this Agreement, agrees to transfer property, selected by mutual agreement, located in or outside Australia, heretofore or hereafter declared to the Office of the Foreign Liquidation Commissioner, United States Department of State, as surplus to the requirements of any department or agency of the Government of the United States, of a total value aggregating $6,500,000 computed at prices to be mutually agreed. There shall be included in the property covered by this paragraph

(i) all property so declared as surplus included in sales or agreements to sell heretofore entered into between the two Governments; and

(ii) all such property included in sales or agreements to sell to any firms or individuals in Australia or in Australian territories, heretofore or hereafter made by the Government of the United States, in respect of which import licenses have been or may hereafter be issued by the Commonwealth of Australia;

and the contract value of the property included in such sales or agreements to sell shall be taken into consideration in computing the total value of surplus property transferred hereunder. This Agreement shall govern in any case in which the terms hereof are in conflict with the terms of any of the agreements described in paragraphs (i) and (ii) above.


That amount paid by the Australian Government is getting close to 100 million dollars in today's terms. The written down value of all the surplus US stuff adds up to a massive amount of gear - vehicles probably made up a large proportion.

There must be records somewhere of where it went. Once Australia owned it, certainly not dumped as the Australian Government was scrambling for every penny and newspaper articles have politicians trumpeting after every big disposals sale how much money they are recovering.

Lang