DEFENCE PLANS OF BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27036, 11 May 1953, Page 9

DEFENCE PLANS OF BRITAIN

Suppression In U.S. Alleged

(Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, May 10. The Chicago “Tribune” said today that the United States Government was suppressing an official summary of Britain’s programme of defence. The summary signed by the heads of the Royal Navy, the Army, and the Royal Air Force had been in Washington since last July, said the newspaper. The British themselves did not regard it as much of a secret. It had been suppressed, not at British insistence, but at the order of American military and civil planners. The reason was that the British plan mocked everything “the top brass” in the defence and State departments in the United States had been saying. Britain intended to concentrate on building her Air Force and was not going to waste time and money in building an Army in the vain hope of resisting the Soviets on land. Nor did the British see any need for great naval expenditures. That was also a good plan for the United States, the “Tribune” said. The Soviets had good reason to fear the West’s planes and their bombs. The answer to the question: “Why does the United States Defence Department continue to demand fabulous sums to be spent on the Army and the Navy?” was almost obvious, said the newspaper. “The gainers are the ‘brass’ themselves. The generals and the admirals sit on the top of a pyramid of men of inferior rank. The more men there are in the top pyramid and the more money there is to spend the higher the few military men and civilians at the top rise In power and selfesteem,” it added.

AFFILIATION OF U.S. EDITOR McCarthy Clash Made Public (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, May 10. A transcript detailing clashes between Senator Joseph McCarthy and Mr James Weschler, editor of the New York “Post," during the examination of Mr Weschler by a Senate Investigating Sub-committee was made public today. Mr Weschler said he would send it to the American Society of Newspaper Editors for study as a clear and present danger to all newspapers. Mr Weschler admitted joining the Young Communist League in 1934 and said he left it in 1937, at the age of 22. He said he had been anti-Communist •ver since. Senator McCarthy has repeatedly declared that he was not satisfied that Mr Wechsler had broken with Communism.