U.S. Wants A Halt To Arms Race

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31248, 21 December 1966, Page 21

U.S. Wants A Halt To Arms Race

(N.Z.P.A. -Reuter—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, December 19.

The United States would like a “freeze” on all nuclear weapons including anti-ballistic missiles in order to avoid a costly arms race with the Soviet Union, officials said last night.

They said such a freeze had been proposed in general terms at the Geneva disarmament conference this year, but had not so far met with any favourable response.

They indicated that the effort would be renewed in Geneva next year when the disarmament conference resumed. The officials said that the recently disclosed Soviet deployment of an anti-ballistic missile system was being considered at the top level of the

United States Government and had caused some concern.

This is one of the problems President Johnson has before him as he and his advisers consider the Budget for the next fiscal year beginning on July 1. NEXT YEAR

Officials said that a budgetary decision whether the United States would try to deploy a costly anti-ballistic missile system of its own was not likely to be made before January or February. They described the question of whether or not to introduce an anti-ballistic missile system as “a major problem for both sides.” The officials said that if both the United Str ies and the Soviet Union were to go in for such a system this would lead to an attempt to multiply inter-continental ballistic missiles in order to

thwart the A.B.M.s In such a case the two sides would eventually find themselves in the same position where they started but having spent thousands of millions of dollars in the .process. Somehow, they said, the two sides had to find a way, of establishing a ceiling on defence spending in order to concentrate bn the things which needed to be done at home. “We are going to keep gnawing at this problem, because it is of importance to people on both sides,’’ said the officials.