“NOTICE SERVED ON TREATY ALLIES”— U.S. House Cuts Arms Aid To Europe By Half

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 August 1949, Page 6

“NOTICE SERVED ON TREATY ALLIES”— U.S. House Cuts Arms Aid To Europe By Half

WASHINGTON, August 18. —In a stunning defeat for the Administration, the House of Representatives tonight cut iff half the Government’s 1,160,990,000-dollar arms aid programme for Atlantic £act countries. The measure still has to go before the Senate. By a vote of 209 to 151 the House adopted an amendment by Mr James Richards (Democrat, South Carolina) that the European funds be cut by 50 per cent.

The amendment, which earlier had been approved by a tentative vote ot 1.72 to 137 by the House sitting as the Committee of the Whole, included a provision ’that the remaining half of the money could be considered by Congress next year. “Must Pull Together”

Mr Richards and those who supported him said that the amendment would serve notice on the European members of the pact that arms help would end next June unless they showed themselves determined to pull together as a team for mutual defence.

The House decision, and particularly the size of the Opposition vote against the passage of the complete European arms programme, surprised Democratic Party leaders. A similar amendment had been defeated in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which had approved the complete bill. The House rejected by 164 votes to 92 an amendment to authorise 75,0'00,000 dollars for anti-Commun-ist areas in the Far East. Some Democrats said that the granting of such aid to Nationalist China at present would be tantamount to a declaration of war against Communist China. Only One Cut Made

The House later approved an overall foreign aid bill which would also give Greece, Turkey, Persia, Korea,

and the Philippines arms aid. The House bill would give Greece and Turkey a total of 211,370,000 dollars, as well as 50,000,000 dollars already authorised. Persia, Korea, and the Philippines would get a total of 27,640,000 dollars. The only cut made was in arms for the North Atlantic Treaty partners. The bill as ultimately passed by the House carried a total foreign aid expenditure of 869,505,000 dollars. President Truman had asked for 1,450,000,000 dollars.