CALL FOR ARMS CUT BY U.S.

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27990, 9 June 1956, Page 9

CALL FOR ARMS CUT BY U.S.

New Soviet Letter To Eisenhower (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, June 8. A “New York Times” dispatch from Washington said today that the letter sent from the Soviet Prime Minister, Marshal Bulganin, to President Eisenhower yesterday called on the United States to match the Soviet Union’s announced cut of 1,200,000 men in its armed forces. The dispatch said that in Soviet quarters, the Bulganin message was described as containing “some new ideas” about the reduction of armaments. The dispatch quoted Western informants as saying that much of the letter dealt with measures, such as the Soviet manpower reduction, that both sides could take to establish a new basis of confidence between East and West.

The letter has not yet been made public. The “New York Times” said, however, that the approach reported to have been taken by Marshal Bulganin carried an implication that if the United States were to reduce its armed forces without prior inspection agreements, the Soviet Union might go beyond its announced 1,200.000 reduction.

The letter, the sixth in the correspondence between the two leaders on East-West problems, was delivered to the Secretary of State (Mr Dulles) by the Soviet Ambassador (Mr Georgi Zarubin). In Washington, the United States Army said today that it would transfer 500,000 men from the “ready” to the “standby” reserve after July 1. Thefcnove will free the transferred men from call to active duty except by act of Congress. The Army said its aim was to strip down its war-ready reserves to a “truly ready group prepared for immediate action in an emergency.” At the same time, the Army said it would discharge altogether an additional 475,000 reservists. The Army estimated that it now has 1,885,000 men in its ready reserve forces, plus another 407.000 in the National Guard. The ready reserve ceiling under a new law passed last year is 1,692,000 reservists and National Guardsmen. The new move is part of the armed forces’ streamlining programme aimed at total active forces of about 2,800,000 and a well-trained, “ready” reserve of about 2,900,000. The shift from ready to standby reserves will cover chiefly men who served in Korea while the fighting was on.