CANADA REFUSES DATA ON TRAINING OF PARATROOPS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22915, 6 April 1949, Page 7

CANADA REFUSES DATA ON TRAINING OF PARATROOPS

(N.Z.P.A. —Reuter—Copyright.) (10 a.m.) OTTAWA, April 5. A lively debate on defence boiled up in the House -of Commons last night when the Minister of Defence, Mr. Brooke Claxton, refused an Opposition request for military information on the ground that it would give aid to Canada’s only possible enemy, Russia.

lie was replying to Mr. George Drew, the Progressive Conservative leader, who urged the Government to strip its curtain of secrecy from defence information and disclose how many parachutists are being trained in Canada. Mr. Claxton refused, adding that it would be giving information which the Soviet would be very glad to have. Mr. Drew called for a Governmentstatement on why Canada is not taking part in the Berlin airlift. He asked for the appointment of a permanent House committee on defence matters and declared that his supporters would vote against .the item of 19,000,000 dollars in the supplementary estimates for 1948-49 for the armed forces organisation unless the request for a committee was granted. Mr. Claxton expressed doubt whether the committee would be a good or bad thing. He pointed out that, although there was such a committee in the United States Congress, the Parliamentary system was different there in that Cabinet Ministers could not be questioned on the floor of the House.