“Nuclear Retaliation Only Reply To Soviet”

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28529, 7 March 1958, Page 7

“Nuclear Retaliation Only Reply To Soviet”

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 8 p.m.)

LONDON, March 5.

The only defence against any full-scale Russian attempt at world domination was the threat of nuclear retaliation, Lord Mancroft,' Minister without portfolio, said tonight. He was opening a two-day Defence debate in the House of Lords.

Lord Mancroft said to try to match the Russians in conventional forces would mean an increase of at least £lOOO million in Britain’s defence expenditure with similar heavy increases for other members of the N.A.T.O. Alliance.

The increased manpower would be enormous, with no chance of ending conscription in Britain. It would lower the Standard of living in all Western countries.

The Government had been asked whether it would use nuclear retaliation in situations other than minor incidents. Lord Mancroft said: “It would be fatuous to try to define in advance precisely what action , would be taken to deal with any and every situation that might arise. “This would make it clear to a potential aggressor just how far he could go without bringing the whole weight of nuclear retaliation down on his head.” Lord Mancroft said the destructive power of the H-bomb was so immense that even a few could produce appalling consequences. These would be wholly unacceptable to a realistic government and nobody ever accused the Russians of not being realistic — even if it knew its own attack on Britain could be 10 times as heavy. ‘ The Leader in the House of Lords of the Labour Opposition, Lord Alexander of Hillsborough, said he thought it a vast error to threaten the other side in advance by saying if it attacked Britain with conventional weapons Britain would reply with the Hbomb. ) HIGH ARMY COMMANDS Commonwealth’s Share (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, February 5 Lord Freyberg, Commander of the New Zealand Forces in the Middle East and Italy in the Ihst war, suggested tonight that in future the highest British commands should be open to Commonwealth commanders. Lord Freyberg, a V.C. and a former Governor-General of New Zealand, was speaking in a House [of Lords defence debate. • He said that in any future war one third of the British forces would be from the Commonwealth. . He hoped there would be a better plan for the use of these forces. “There were times in the last war when we found ourselves at sixes and sevens. The lessons of World War I had not been thought out.” he said “Commonwealth troops must be used to the best advantage and we must have a proper system of promotion to the highest posts of command, which should be open to all commander?, irrespective of their country or origin,” Lord Freyberg said. “I should like to know to what extent our experience in the last war has enabled us to solve the problem of achieving effective cooperation between the contingents of the different nations that form the British Commonwealth,” he said. Disposal Of U.S. Farm Surpluses (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, March 5 The Senate Agriculture Committee today approved programmes under which the United States would sell, trade or give away nearly 6,000 million dollars worth of farm surpluses in the next two years. The amount of surpluses for overseas disposal was more than double that requested by the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr Ezra Benson. It ignored his recommendations for tapering off the barter of farm commodities on world markets. P. and O. Fleet Commodore.— Captain John Cavendish William Last, aged 58, has been appointed Commodore of the P. and O. fleet. He will continue to serve in the 24,000-ton liner Chusan, which he has captained since September, 1956.—London, March 5.