BRITISH-U.S. TALKS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28699, 24 September 1958, Page 13

BRITISH-U.S. TALKS

Sandys Meets Dulles

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10.45 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Sept. 23.

Mr Duncan Sandys, the British Defence Minister, will resume his intensive conferences with United States military chiefs today against the background of unrelaxed tension in the Far East.

He interrupted his talks with the United States Secretary of Defence (Mr Neil McElroy) yesterday for a hastily-arranged, 45minute conference with the Secretary of State (Mr Dulles), and Formosa was believed to have been the main subject discussed.

Mr Sandys is also expected to call on President Eisenhower, who will return to Washington today from his holiday at Newport, Rhode Island. No time or date has yet been announced, and

it was assumed that Mr Sandys would probably call at the White House privately today or tomorrow British and American progress m missile development was the subject of yesterday s first “working meeting” in the massive De-, fence Department building. Mr Sandys quickly disposed of any suggestion that he might be trying to persuade the United States to adopt successful British missiles. “I am not on a selling mission,” he told reporters at the airport.

But observers assumed that the British Minister and his team of experts were giving their American colleagues a full briefing on Britain’s achievements with missiles.

The first United States Thor intermediate-range missile has already arrived in Britain, and Mr Sandys will visit the Arizona desert camp where British airmen are being trained on these weapons.

But besides discussing the Thor, the British defence experts are known to be most interested in the “second generation” missiles such as the solid-fuel Polaris and Minute Men rockets.

The talks are expected to include discussion of the entire range of short and long-range missiles, including light-weight tactical weapons. Today’s conference may also cover the implementation of the British-American agreement for sharing atomic weapons secrets. The agreement includes a United States pledge to supply Britain with a complete power plant for a nuclear submarine.