DOMINIONS TO BE ASKED FOR SUPPORT IN EVENT OF WAR

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 October 1948, Page 6

DOMINIONS TO BE ASKED FOR SUPPORT IN EVENT OF WAR

LONDON, Oct. 9.

“Britain will ask the Dominions to pledge full military support for the Brussels alliance, in the event of war against Russia,” says the Paris correspondent of the Associated Press, quoting authoritative Commonwealth sources who insisted on anonymity. “These sources said that the British had a plan whereby each Dominion would be asked to accept representation on the unified military staff committee of the alliance. Canada already has military observers sitting on the military command which Field-Marshal Lord Montgomery now leads.

“Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, India and Ceylon will also be asked to join. Details of this and more specific projects have already been sent to the various Dominions from London. “It was stated that the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ talks in London next week would be heavily underlined by what British leaders feel to be the need to organise the Dominions on a regional basis. “An official South African source said that the Union would undertake specific military commitments only if Britain, France, and the Benelux countries were involved in a war against Russia. The Union would reserve the right to remain neutral in. the event of war against a non-Com-munist State.”