Us Paying For

Coconut Trees

Some Further Light on Vexatious Question

IN the June “PIM” there was an article entitled “$25 per Coconut Tree— Canard Which Angered the Ameri cans.” It reported the statements of British leaders who denied the truth of the widely-spread story that the Ameri can Army was being compelled to pay for every coconut tree destroyed on British islands in the course of war operations.

The editor of the “PIM” now has received a personal letter from Mr.

George Weller, of Chicago “Daily News,” and one of the best-known of the Ameri can foreign correspondents who visited the Pacific. Writing in August, Mr.

Weller said: “It is not a canard that the United States Government has a policy of pay ing for the coconut trees which it cuts down on foreign soil in the Pacific.

“On an island in the French Pacific (which I shall identify fpr you by name when security permits) I have personally accompanied an American naval officer whose duty it was to pay natives for trees cut down in the construction of an air field. I have been with this officer on the errand of payment. It cannot be denied that the practice exists.

“I note with interest your statement that the British Government and Lever Brothers both have denied debiting the United States for palms destroyed in the course of operations in the Solomons.

Within its limitations, this statement may be accepted, although the third party in the matter is still not heard from.

“Against this statement by the British Government and Levers, but not neces sarily in contradiction of it, please note that I personally received an affirmation in September, 1943, from a high Ameri can official quarter in the South Pacific headquarters—the name again not quot able until after the war, for reasons of security—that the United States was being debited for coconuts cut down on plantations under this command. The price stated was not $25, but less than $lO, and varied with the age of the tree.

“The distinction between battle opera tions and general war operations is important, I doubt that an American Government could rightly pay for trees cut down by their own or enemy artillery fire or bombing. That is part of the hazards of war.

“The question is whether payment is being made for trees cut down in prepar ing rear airfields and such constructions as do not come actually under fire (‘destroyed’), but simply have to be cut down to build up the strength of rear areas.

“If the British official sources whom you quote, and Lever Brothers, are pre pared to state in writing that no debits of this kind have ever been entered against the American account, I shall be interested in seeing their statements.

“Such statements, if forthcoming, would be in contradiction with the statement of September, 1943, which I have cited above, and would be at variance with policy in the French islands with which I am familiar at first hand.”

Wing-Commander Donald Donaldson, formerly on the staff of the British Phosphate Commission, Nauru, went missing over France in late June. He took over the command of the squadron relinquished by Wing-Commander Rollo Kingsford-Smith.