Nuclear Warheads For Canadian Missiles

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30562, 3 October 1964, Page 19

Nuclear Warheads For Canadian Missiles

[From MELVIN SUFRIN, Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.]

TORONTO, October 2.

Eighteen months after warheads brought down the Government, Canada is within sight of fulfilling its promise to the United States to “go nuclear.”

Military officials say nuclear warheads have recently been provided for the Honest John artillery rocket, one of the weapons used by the 6300-man motorised infantry brigade in West Germany. This weapon packs a punch the equivalent of 100,000 tons of T.N.T. five times as great as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Six squadrons of low-level jet bombers stationed in Germany under Canada’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation commitment now have nuclear bombs with a little more than half the power of the honest John warheads. And 56 Bomarc Anti-air-craft missiles at two bases, in northern Ontario and northern Quebec, were fitted with nuclear tips early this year. This leaves onlv 48 jet interceptors at four bases across Canada without warheads. Genie rockets will be delivered for these Relet year. The distribution of nuclear arms around the country has not been without reaction. Earlier thiS month 51 ban-the-bomb demonstrators took part in a 48-hour sit-down protest against the storing of warheads at the La Macaza, Quebec, Bomarc base. They tangled with Air Force police and their charges of brutal treatment reached the Commons, where the socialist leader. Mr Douglas, said he had information that 100 guards charged the demonstrators, dragged one man bv his hair along the road, kicked, a girl and dealt roughly with others. The associate Defence Minister, Mr Cardin, replied that the police had to move the demonstrators, who were blocking the entrance to the base and that they used no more force than necessary. But the Prime Minister, Mr Lester Pearson, said the charges would be investigated further. This sort of protest is rather unusual these days, however, and Canadians generally seem unexcited

about the idea of having warheads around. Many feel that in the unlikely events of a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States, Canada—sitting in between—could hardly escape Whether or not she had warheads on her soil. Certainly the . issue today is less intense than early in 1963 when three Ministers in Mr John Diefenbaker’s minority Conservative Government resigned, charging indecision on defence policy, and a non-cpnfidence vote forced an election. Mr Pearson’s Liberals squeezed into office!, also as a minority Government, and set about making good what they claimed was a promise given in 1960 by the Conservatives to turn Canada into a nuclear power. Mr Diefenbaker has always denied there was any such commitment by Canada as a partner in North American defence, but the debate no longer has much meaning. The weapons are here and Mr Pearson is coming to the second step in his policytrying to get Canada out Of the nuclear club. He has said all along that this country would keep the warheads only until it could negotiate an arrangement to get rid of them without seriously weakening continental defence.. People who know say there is little chance of a change until early in 1966. By then it may not be so difficult to get out of the commitment.

One reason is that American nuclear weaponry is becoming increasingly sophisticated and the need for bases spread around the world is being reduced accordingly. Another is that the Soviet Union is gradually decreasing its bomber strength and, ,be : cause Bomarcs are useful only against bombers, their role is rapidly diminishing. Besides, their value was seriously questioned even before they were brought to Canada. There is talk that the United States might abandon Bomarcs altogether within 24 months.

This suggests that in time there will cease to be any point ih having defensive nuclear warheads on Canadian soil, and it raises the possi-

bility that such equipment will be retained only by Canada’s strike forces overseas. In the meantime, the warheads are here—still the property of the United States but, by agreement, not to be fired without Canada’s consent.