Some Doubt At Kennedy Plan

Press, Volume C, Issue 29524, 27 May 1961, Page 11

Some Doubt At Kennedy Plan

(NZ- Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, May 26. Members of the United States Congress embraced with some warmth the objectives outlined in President Kennedy’s speech, but shied at the thought of providing all the funds to meet them, the “New York Times said today.

The President yesterday proposed to Congress new measures to rocket a man to the moon, to expand nonnuclear military strength and to increase foreign aid spending. These actions, he said, were needed to promote a “freedom doctrine” around the globe. In a Washington dispatch the “New York Times” said Democrats and Republicans joined in support of the President’s tone of urgency to get the unemployed backto work, to get an American on the moon and to strengthen the nation’s defences. But, as expected, they divided on whether the President was going the right way about it all the newspaper’s Washington correspondent said What the Republicans called “huge spending schemes,” the Democrats described as “necessary sacrifices.” “Where are we going to

get the money?” muttered one Republican as he left the crowded House floor after the President concluded. That fairly well summed up the thoughts of many of bis Republican colleagues as well as those of many of the Southern Democratic Conservatives, the correspondent said. Some fears were expressed by Democratic Liberals, however. that the huge spending in the effort to reach the moon, estimated by the President as up to 9000 m dollars more in the next five years, might divert funds from programmes such as aid to the aged. (Earlier report on page 13)