Taking Chances’ In Defence Spending, Says Eisenhower

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23217, 31 March 1950, Page 5

Taking Chances’ In Defence Spending, Says Eisenhower

(N.Z.P.A. —Reuter—Copyright.)

(10 a.m.) WASHINGTON, March 30. General D. D. Eisenhower said yesterday that the United States was “taking chances” by not spending enough in three vital defence fields. He said these were the air force, anti-sub-marine warfare and Alaskan bases.

General Eisenhower, who was addressing the Senate Appropriations Committee, praised the economies of the Defence Secretary, Mr. Louis Johnson, but said the United States had “gone as far in favour of economy as it is wise to go and, in some specific ways, too far.”

General Eisenhower appeared before the committee to clarify his recent statement that, in some directions, the United States had disarmed beyond the point of safety. His statement, which was made in a speech at Columbia University, New York, confused Congress as it had been understood that he had approved of the budget.

Yesterday General Eisenhower told the committee that a fully modernised 48-group Air Force could not be maintained under the proposed budget and anything less than 48 groups would “dip under the line” separating preparedness and economy.

He said the United States was taking chances in the anti-submarine war but he would leave the final judgment to Admiral Forrest Sherman, Chief of Naval Operations.

Declaring that the chief threat to Alaska came from possible airborne invasion, General Eisenhower said it would be a mistake not to put an efficient garrison at each major base. He said he did not believe war was imminent, but the United States military planners must take a long view. The proposed defence budget of about 13,000,000,000 dollars was “about on a proper line between economy and security" but it would be better to add a “few hundred million dollars" for the air force, anti-submarine warfare and Alaskan bases. Later Mr. Carl Vinson, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, announced that his committee was considering proposals to provide more aircraft and better radar installations for defence.