BRITAIN AND AMERICA AGREE ON SUPPLY OF FIGHTERS TO SWEDEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 October 1948, Page 5

BRITAIN AND AMERICA AGREE ON SUPPLY OF FIGHTERS TO SWEDEN

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7

Britain and America have reached agreement over the supply of British Vampire jet fighters to Sweden, and Britain’s contract with the Swedish Government presumably will continue,- says Reuter. The United States 10 days ago objected to the contract, claiming that Britain should devote any export surplus of fighters to the other four members of the Western European Defence Alliance—France, Belgium Holland, and Luxemburg—rather than send them to a nation which had declared its intention of maintaining its traditional neutrality if possible in the event of another war. The British reply' emphasised (1) that shipment of the aeroplanes to Sweden was necessary to earn muchneeded hard currency; (2) that the contract would not interfere with the supply of British fighters to Western European countries under the military alliance now being worked out; (3) that there was a possibility of Sweden and the whole Scandinavian bloc eventually joining the Wetern European alliance, and also that even if Sweden remained neutral in a war the equipment would not fall into a potential enemy’s hands. American officials accepted the British leply.