U.S. DEFENCES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 119, 4 March 1950, Page 5

U.S. DEFENCES

NO WEAKENING PRESIDENT’S STATEMENT (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 2. President Truman said to-day that the United States was now in a better defence situation than ever before in peace time. The President’s claim was one of several pronouncements on defence made by Administration leaders during the day. Senator Millard Tydings, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that emergency plans, ready to be put into effect if war came, included civilian defence against “any possible danger.” Mr Truman spoke in support of the Secretary of Defence ((Mr Louis Johnson), who had reduced the Army, Navy, and Air Force Budgets. Mr Truman said he w r as aware of criticism in some quarters that the economy moves had weakened the United States’ defences. That was not the truth. •

Mr Johnson, in a report to Congress, said: “We will not retreat from our basic objective of miximising our national security and minimising its cost.” Mr Johnson said later that current studies indicated that military spending would continue at the level of 13,000,000,000 dollars during the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 1951 —the level which Mr Truman proposed to Congress for the «flscal year beginning on July 1, 1950. Senator Tyding’s statement on emergency plans was made after a secret meeting of the Seriate Armed Services Committee and the National Security Resources Board. Senator Tydings said the committee was pleased with a report by the board, whose chief job was to arrange for the smooth movement of 'the whole nation into a war effort if the need arose.

He added that the planning represented an “insurance” against possible conditions, and “not any threat of an immediate emergency.”