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Amazing USA/Australia Treaty 1946
In this amazing treaty USA and Australia resolved finally and completely for not only all the Lend Lease and Reverse Lend Lease agreements for the entire WW2 period but for every supply, service and loan either way.
It was all done on ONE PAGE ending with nobody owing anybody anything. You will note the Australian Government gave the US Government property to pay for some of their debts which in turn the US Government gave back to the Australian Government to pay for their debts! The agreement also includes the continued production and delivery of all the stuff in the pipeline Australia ordered - this in itself must have run to many millions of dollars - I suspect this is why hundreds of Studebakers, among many other things kept arriving after the war and were placed in long term storage immediately.. 3 USD equalled 1 Australian Pound in 1945. I read somewhere that the British and Americans finally closed the books on their Lend Lease only recently - 70 years later. This is the guts of it: c) In consideration of the mutual undertakings described in this Agreement, and with the objective of arriving at as comprehensive a settlement as possible and of obviating protracted negotiations between the two Governments, all other financial claims whatsoever of one Government against the other which arose out of lend-lease or reciprocal aid, or otherwise arose on or after 3 September 1939 and prior to 2 September 1945, out of or incidental to the conduct of World War II, and which are not otherwise dealt with in this Agreement, are hereby waived, and neither Government will hereafter raise or pursue any such claims against the other. If only our politicians could be as practical and sensible now. The same agreement today would not only have taken several years of conferences and jet-setting by politicians and public servants but instead of being written in plain English as below would have been rendered unreadable with weasel words and legal speak in a 50 page document with 300 annexes. Quote:
Last edited by Lang; 31-10-16 at 06:21. |
#2
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An interesting one I found was a request from the Australian Air Force to the UK Government for clarity on who owned the remaining 65 MKV Spitfires left in Australian service December 1945 as they wanted to scrap them.
Numerous letters and reminders between London and Canberra finally produced an answer nearly a year later that the British couldn't care less and the Australians could do what they liked with them (seeing the Australians had paid for them in the first place!) It took a year to sort out a handful of obsolete aircraft - luckily we had no billion dollar Lend Lease type arrangement with UK or we would still be talking about it. |
#3
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Perhaps so, but due to short sightedness, where are all those spitfires now!?
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Ford CMP, 115" WB,1942 (Under Restoration...still) Medium sized, half fake, artillery piece project. (The 1/4 Pounder) |
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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 |
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Treaty
Very nice reading. Thanks for posting this !
Absolutely true about modern politicians. Those were the days. Cheers from Comox , Canada , North America.
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44 GPW / 44 C-15-A Cab 13 Wireless 5 with 2K1 box X 2 / 44 U.C. No-2 MKII* / 10 Cwt Cdn Brantford Coach & Body trailer X 2 / 94 LSVW |
#6
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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. |
#7
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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 Last edited by Lang; 01-11-16 at 01:14. |
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equipment
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.
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1940 cab 11 C8 1940 Morris-Commercial PU 1941 Morris-Commercial CS8 1940 Chev. 15cwt GS Van ( Aust.) 1942-45 Jeep salad |
#9
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Quote:
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Terry Warner - 74-????? M151A2 - 70-08876 M38A1 - 53-71233 M100CDN trailer Beware! The Green Disease walks among us! |
#10
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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 Last edited by Lang; 03-11-16 at 01:41. |
#11
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empire
During the later WW2 days, the Americans were pressurising Britain , the US policy was the 'empire' days are over . Colonial territories and mandates were to be given up . FDR was directly cajoling Churchill over this , FDR was very much a anti colonial person.
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1940 cab 11 C8 1940 Morris-Commercial PU 1941 Morris-Commercial CS8 1940 Chev. 15cwt GS Van ( Aust.) 1942-45 Jeep salad |
#12
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That's why America took a mandate over the Marshall Islands, American Samoa, Panama Canal Zone and a number of others???
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