QUARREL ABOUT STRATEGY

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25932, 12 October 1949, Page 5

QUARREL ABOUT STRATEGY

U.S. AIR FORCE AND NAVY EXPERTS GIVE EVIDENCE TO CONGRESS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON,- October 10. • Navy experts giving evidence before ( the House Armed Services Committee to-day said they were certain that i the Russians could detect and shoot ( down the United States Air Force’s 836 atomic-bomb carrier. One witness said that the bomb itself was not as destructive as people believed. Commander Eugene Totom, an air ordnance officer, said that a man about a mile and a quarter away from the burst would not be seriously hurt. He added that although the atomic bomb completely devastated its immediate vicinity, its area of destruction was rather limited. He argued that atomic bombing required precision work and that the 836 could not bomb accurately at 40.000 feet and deep 'in enemy territory. At this height it would require saturation bombing, which would indiscriminately destroy the population. The committee heard a parade of I Navy technicians belittle the 836. - which the Air Force claims can go : anywhere. Navy men claim that the ! naval 'air arm is a vital defence factor that is being whittled back while ! mistaken emphasis is put on the Air j Force’s long-range bombing plans. The Secretary of Defence (Mr Louis Johnson) said to-night that the present controversy over air strategy could do grave damage to America’s ' security. He has sent a letter to the i Hous? Armed Services Committee ask- | ing it to call on Mr Herbert Hoover, j General Eisenhower, and others for their views. NAVY’S ROLE IN U.S. DEFENCE MR JOHNSON REPLIES TO CRITICS SOVIET ATOMIC RESEARCH DISCUSSED (Rec. 8.40 p.m.) NEW YORK. Oct. 10. The United States Secretary of Defence (Mr Louis Johnson) to-day accused some Navy partisans of waging , “a campaign of terror” against unification of the armed forces. Addressing the annual convention of the American Federation of Labour at St. Paul, he said that his cancellation ' of the construction of the Navy’s 60.000-ton aircraft-carrier had been “twisted into a charge of persecution against the Navy.” Mr Johnson assured the Navy that he and the Joint Chiefs of Staff recognised that there was a continuing need for aircraft-carriers, but he said that it had been determined that the Navy’s role would be to control sea routes. (Some nava] officers and their Congressional supporters have campaigned to have aircraft-carriers re-\ cognised as major instruments in atomic warfare.) Mr Johnson said that it was intended to keep the Marine Corps and the Navy as vital parts of the defence combination, not to “unify” them out of business, as Navy partisans had claimed. He added that the possibility thatl the Russians would learn the atomic I secret had long figured in defence planning, and said that he was confident that America still had the lead in atomic weapons. ‘‘l am confident that we still hold i the lead, not enough of a lead to grow i complacent, but enough to be decisive i if we continue at the present pace.” i he said. “The implications of the ■ atomic explosion in Russia have been integrated into our security planning and Government policies “The possession by the Russians of the knowledge and means to produce ’ an atomic explosion increases the ur- ' gency of agreement upon a plan of ' international control of atomic . energy.” DEFENCE AGAINST ATOMIC ATTACK PLANS TO BE CONSIDERED IN U.S. (Rec. 8.50 p.m.) WASHINGTON, October 10. The Joint Congressional Atomic Energy Committee to-day decided to hold public hearings next week on plans for civilian defence in the event i of an atomic attack on the United States. Senator Brien McMahon, chairman ; of the committee, said that the Rus- i sian achievement, of an atomic -ex- | plosion “makes it imperative that we get about the business of planning and hurrying up sensible measures of defence.” SECURITY OF ATOMIC PROJECT DISMISSALS REPORTED IN CUMBERLAND (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, October 10. “Scores of builders at the British Government’s £7,000.000 atomic explosive plant at SeUsficld, Cumberland, have been either dismissed or given other jobs as part of stringent precautions against sabotage and spying.” says the “Daily Express.” “A thorough purge of all techhleans and workmen believed to have Communist sympathies has been carried out. Former membershio of the Communist Party or association with present members constitutes a bar.” AMERICAN RAILWAY ACCIDENT FOUR DEAD, 75 INJURED NEW YORK. October 10. Four persons were killed and at least 75 others were injured when the Rock Island Railroad Imperial Express plunged through a storm-Weakened trestle bridge over a creek hear Meade, Kansas. The Diesel locomdtive and four carriages of the express, which was bound from Los Angeles to Chicago, left the track. One carriage was completely submerged in the waters of the creek.