MOST JAP FARM EQUIPMENT SOLD - Says W.R.A. Aide

There are only about 150 pieces of farm equipment owned by Japanese and Japanese-Americans in Washington, Oregon and California which have not been sold or leased for farm use, Russell T. Robinson, chief of the Evacuee Property Office of the War Relocation Authority, said here today.

Robinson, who is in Seattle from his headquarters in San Francisco to visit the local offices of the W.R.A., said this number of pieces of farm machinery, mostly tractors, represents a small percentage of the machines already sold.

"All of these people who operated farms before they were moved from military zones were urged to dispose of farm equipment," Robinson said. This was handled by the Farm Security Administration and the Federal Reserve Bank prior to the removal of the Japanese, and has been handled since by the W.R.A.

"One of the most active projects of the W.R.A. has been to determine just how much machinery urgently needed for farm production is now in storage," Robinson explained. "When our discussions with implement dealers and county agents reveal a tractor in storage, we contact the man who owns it.

"None of these transactions is in the nature of the W.R.A. and county war boards as an intermediary agent, and said that private property rights always are recognized.