FORECASTS OF SPEECH

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25445, 17 March 1948, Page 5

FORECASTS OF SPEECH

"President Truman is expected to submit to the joint session a comprehensive ‘preparedness’ programme based on United States supremacy in air power.” says Reuter’s Washington correspondent. “Such a programme would be designed to back up the United States against any consequences which might follow complete fulfilment of the "Truman Doctrine’ pledge that the United States will support any European country resisting totalitarian pressure. This is taken in informed quarters to include Scandinavia.” The correspondent, who compares the position with that after the fall of France in 1940. when Mr Roosevelt asked for a nation-wide preparedness programme, adds: “It is understood that these is strong pressure on the President to call for a comprehensive mobilisation of United States resources. "Measures under discussion in responsible circles here include the re-

vival of conscription, the establishment of war powers, over industry, restoration of lend-lease, and the declaration of a state of national emergency.”

Both the “New York Times,” in a leading article, and the “New York Herald Tribune.” in a dispatch from its Washington correspondent, suggest that President Truman may announce American plans to support the alliance now - being formed Britain, France, and the Low- Countries. The “New York Times” says: “The alliance is assured of the tacit support of the United States, but President Truman’s decision to address Congress suggests that this support may be made more explicit.”

The “Herald Tribune” correspondent says it is reported in Washington that the Administration has decided that the new alliance in Brussels must be backed by some form of military commitment from the United. States.