WEST EUROPE ARMIES ARE IN POOR SHAPE

Grey River Argus, 11 October 1949, Page 5

WEST EUROPE ARMIES ARE IN POOR SHAPE

LONDON. Oct. 8

The chairman of the United States Senate Armed Services Committee (Senator Millard Tydings) said today that the defence position of the countries he had visited in his western European tour was not as good as he had hoped it would be. Senator Tydings is ending a month’s tour to consider the military capabilities of the Atlantic Pact nations.

He said: ‘There is a desire to assume military responsibility, but there are barriers of politics and economic limitations which make it difficult to do it at once.”

He said: “Theie is a desire to assume military responsibility, but there are barriers of politics and economic limitations which make it difficult to do it at once.”

H e said that the air forces of the allied European countries were' inreasonably good condition, but their land forces were a weak link in the chain. Much progress had been made in the standardising of weapons, but this was far from the ultimate goal. He added that he hoped Western Germany would be included in the North Atlantic Pact under reasonable conditions.