WAR DANGER STRONGER THAN THREE MONTHS AGO-Gen. Bradley

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22622, 27 April 1948, Page 5

WAR DANGER STRONGER THAN THREE MONTHS AGO-Gen. Bradley

(N.Z.P.A.—Reuter— Copyright.) (10 a.m.) WASHINGTON, April 26. General Omar Bradley, Chief of Staff, has told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the prospect of war is stronger now than it was three months ago.

General Bradley, in secret service evidence before the committee on April 21, said: “We are a little bit more afraid that something will happen than we were three months ago when we were talking in terms of reserves.” “General Bradley also said: “We are not sure that there is no war ahead right away.” The committee today published the evidence after heavily censoring it in places. General Bradley, replying to the cormnittee chairman, said he was not dropping his request for universal military training . “Unless you are willing to fight _ a purely defensive war on this continent, you must have a trained reserve, plus whatever air forces you can get over to England, maybe, or to somebody else that is holding out for the time being. Otherwise you are going to sit here until you can build it up, train it and equip it. “In the meantime, you have lost all the footholds from which you can attack Russia, because we know that is what we are all talking about.” The revised defence programme about which the committee was talking calls for the expenditure of 14,481,000.000 dollars during 'the 12 months beginning on August 1. Under the revised programme there would be a 66-group air force, a ternnorary draft for man-power and approval of a long-range universal military training programme. Air power in the three branches of the armor forces would be built up.