WEST LIKELY TO BE OUTNUMBERED IN MANPOWER SHOULD THERE BE WARMUST HAVE MUNITIONS SUPREMACY

Grey River Argus, 7 November 1949, Page 5

WEST LIKELY TO BE OUTNUMBERED IN MANPOWER SHOULD THERE BE WARMUST HAVE MUNITIONS SUPREMACY

(Received 9.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, November 5 The United States must endeavour, at all times, to maintain such a munitions supremacy that any potential enemy would be discouraged, entirely, from taking the path of aggression, said the Secretary for Defence, Mr Louis Johnson, in an address i last night to the American legion.

Mr Johnson said be believed that the United States had much superior weapons to any potential enemy. The United States was still ahead of the rest of tiie world in munitions production. “Supremacy in mass production is still ours, and by a wide margin- but, like all of the leaders in any race, the breath of those close behind us is warm on our neck!’’ he said “We'are still ahead, but we must continue to remain ahead. “Our weapon; must be developed for use not against any theoretical enemy of another age, but for defence against a present great land Power. Our strategy must be to strike back where he is likely to be weakest—his Long lines of communication and transport, his production, facilities—and to defend ourselves against the strategy upon which he is likely to concentrate—a blitz ground attack against the nations that are friendly to us, and atomic raids upon our industrial centres.” Mr Johnson said that the United States had had more time 'o prepare the means to eountract the effects of atomic bombs should she become the victim of such an attack. He warned the United States and her Western Allies that they must consider the possibility of being outnumbered in manpower in the event of war. They must make sure that this deficiency would have its compensations “in the superiority of our weapons, our skills, our facilities, and our industrial potential. ’