MISSILES ON FORMOSA

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28491, 22 January 1958, Page 11

MISSILES ON FORMOSA

600-Mile Range Of U.S. Weapons

(Rec. 9.30 p.m.) NEW YORK January 30. United States Matador guided missiles, capable of carrying atomic warbeads 600 miles, were set up and ready tor action on Formosa. Vice-Admiral Austin Doyle said today.

Reporting this from Taipei, the United Press said that Admiral Doyle, the top United States military commander on Formosa, refused to say whether the nuclear warheads were on the island. But most observers assumed that the United States had them tucked away either there or on Okinawa, the agency said. The Matador was a surface-to-surface tactical missile with a range of about 600 miles. Launched from Formosa it could strike key Communist Chinese targets from Canton to Shanghai and as far Inland as Nanking. The United States announced the stationing of Matadors on Formosa lest summer but the 17th Tactical Mission Squadron of the Air Force did not arrive until late November.

Admiral Doyle said that although there appeared to ba a general status quo in the area, an increase in the number of Communist submarines in the Far East was a “very serious threat." The Soviets, he said, had about 112 submarines in Far Eastern waters and had given another 60 to China. Admiral Doyle was quoted as saying: “The American people are getting their money’s worth on Formosa . . . . and the cause of the Free World is considerably strengthened throughout Southeast Asia by the knowledge that the United States is standing arm against the Communists " Science Secrecy Assailed (Rec. 8 pan.) WASHINGTON, Jan. 20. Dr. Lloyd Berkner, a leading scientist who supervises much of the scientific research ordered by the Defence Department, said today that 90 per cent of the scientific information kept secret by the government should be made public. “1 am afraid that some day we might have to light a war with pieces of paper marked ’secret’ instead of weapons and men ready to light.'’ he told a Congressional committee. Dr. Berkner, who is president of the Associated Universities, said creation of the distance early warning radar system (D.E.W.) had been delayed because the principles behind a new communications system were kept secret for a year and a half Refugees Welcomed.—Q ue e n Juliana of the Netherlands was at the dockside today to welcome nearly 1000 refugees from Indonesia in the British migrant ship. Captain Cook. Yesterday she met 918 others at Rotterdam.—Amsterdam.January 29.