AMMUNITION IN KOREA

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26987, 12 March 1953, Page 9

AMMUNITION IN KOREA

Supply Now Held Adequate

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Mar. 10.

Senator Leverett Saltonstall, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said tonight that testimony brought before the committee showed that the ammunition supply in Korea was adequate and getting much better rapidly. Senator Saltonstall was speaking at the end of a closed committee hearing at which senior defence officials answered charges by General James van Fleet, the former commander of the Sth Army, that the Army had suffered serious and sometimes critical shortages of ammunition.

Summarising secret testimony given at the hearing, Senator Saltonstall said there had been acute shortages of ammunition, but added: “There was no specific evidence that the shortage nas cost any American lives. I want to emphasise to fathers and mothers and to all our people that the testimony shows that the ammunition supply in Korea today is adequate and getting much better rapidly.” Senator Saltonstall said he thought that General van Fleet’s statements on shortages had “stood up” under the testimony of Defence Department spokesmen. He did not elaborate. Testimony was given by the Secretary of Defence (Mr Charles Wilson), 'the Army Chief of Staff (General J. Lawton Collins), General van Fleet and other Defence Department spokesmen. The hearing was private, but prepared statements were handed to reporters. •

Expansion of Production Mr Wilson claimed that supplies were adequate to meet present needs and production had been expanded rapidly in recent months. He indicated that he and President Eisenhower had gone into the question of ammunition shortages and General van Fleet’s complaints at the time they visited Korea last year. He said ammunition production had been stepped up sharply recently, especially in types that had been short. He said February production was 114 per. cent, of the ammunition actually fired or used in January. Mr Wilson said in his prepared statement that a substantial improvement had been made in the rate of production of the four sizes of ammunition that were considered most critical. He said at the present time there was sufficient ammunition for operations on the present scale, and soon there would sufficient supplies to give the field commander considerable latitude in determining upon and supporting a more active type of operations. Senator Saltonstall told the military and defence leaders that Congress and the public were seriously disturbed about conflicting reports as to the inaaequacy of ammunition supplies available to the American forces in Korea.

Senatofr Saltonstall said the military leaders had been called in the hopes of bringing into common perspective contradictory views regarding ammunition, which had completely baffled Congress, as well as the nation. General van Fleet’s views did not square with those given by authoritative officials that there was actually a safe supply of ammunition in Korea, the Far East, and elsewhere, he said. General Collins flatly disputed the charges. He said there had never been a shortage of ammunition, unless it was some isolated instance because of local difficulties of distribution, either to repel an attack or conduct Allied operations. General Collins said he wanted that understood, not only to reassure the American people, but also to give pause to the enemy, who might otherwise be led into further aggression in the mistaken belief that such aggression would be successful.