French Policy Worries Canada

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30170, 29 June 1963, Page 11

French Policy Worries Canada

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) OTTAWA, June 28. rhe Canadian Defence Minister, Mr Paul Hellyer, said yesterday that President de Gaulle’s refusal to permit nuclear stockpiling in France threatened the effectiveness of four Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons that form part of the N.A.T.O. forces, United Press International reported.

Mr Hellyer’s major policy statement, made to a Parliamentary defence committee, linked 'Canada for the first time with the list of N.A.T.O. allies publicly unhappy about General de Gaulle's nuclear weapons nationalism.

The squadrons, based in France at Marville and Gostenquin. represent half of Canada’s air contribution to NATO’s European forces. Together with four other Canadian squadrons in West Germany, they are now being equipped with CFIO4 strikereconnaissance aircraft which, once a permissive agreement is signed with the United States, are to be armed with nuclear warheads. Mr Hellyer said, however, that General de Gaulle’s insistence on controlling any nuclear arms stored in France would make it impossible for the squadrons at Marville and Gostenquin to be equipped with American-supplied warheads. The defence Minister himself ruled out the most apparent alternatives. He said that shifting the squadrons to other sites outside France raised “the further question of vulnerability.” while assigning a non-nuclear role to the Starfighters would mean a job for which they “do not readily lend themselves." “In view of these problems, it is considered desirable to review at once the alternatives which mar be available

now or in the future.” he said.

The United States, faced with a similar dilemma several years ago, met the situation by moving its aircraft to Britain. French Doubts Yesterday, the French Information Minister (Mr Alain Peyrefitte) told reporters France had never doubted President Kennedy’s determination to defend Europe, but it had no guarantee of what a future President would do in 10 years’ time. Mr Peyrefitte’s statement was a direct reply to President Kennedy’s unity speech at Frankfurt, West Germany, on Tuesday. Addressing the Parisian Parliamentary Press Association Mr Peyrefitte said: “It is for the survival of the country that France should herself have control of the means of her own defence It is not reasonable for a country to abandon itself completely to another country for its defence.”

His statement obviously set out President de Gaulle’s attitude to President Kennedy’s speech on the need for Western solidarity and the futility ot purely national nuclear forces Mr Peyrefitte commented on France’s decision to withdraw its Atlantic fleet from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. “A distinction should be made between two things: the Atlantic Alliance and N.A.T.0..” he said.

“More than anybody else, France is attached to Atlantic solidarity and if war broke out. France would take part with all her forces in the framework of the Atlantic Alliance. “But N.A.T.0., which is the present organisation of the Alliance, lends itself to criticism. We shall repeat this criticism until a reform of NATO. is adopted at least.” he said. The French decision should not be regarded as a “hostile gesture." he said. France's contribution to N.A.T.O. was an important one—she had about 68.000 men in Germany against about 50,000 from Britain.