BRITISH NAVAL POWER

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28539, 19 March 1958, Page 16

BRITISH NAVAL POWER

Reported Anxiety r In U.S. (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 16.

American and N.A.T.O. service chiefs were so worried by the falling power of the British Navy that they wanted a United States fleet to move in|o British waters and take over the front-line sea defences of Britain, the “Sunday Dispatch’’ reported. The proposal, which could not fail to create a controversy, had been put to the Military Committee of N.A.T.0., the newspaper says.

What worried N.A.T.O. was Britain’s decision to run down the strength of the Royal Navy’s surface craft and turn it over—west of Suez—to an anti-submarine force, the “Sunday Dispatch’* said. /

United States Navy chiefs and most of the European N.A.T.O. countries believed that Mr Duncan Sandys’s action In getting rid of another five carriers and five cruisers as part of this plan had opened a dangerous vacuum on the northern sea flank.