U.S. Military Aid Bill Rewritten

Northern Advocate, 6 August 1949, Page 5

U.S. Military Aid Bill Rewritten

WASHINGTON, Fri. (10.30 a.m.).—President Truman sent to Congress a new foreign military aid bill without provisions giving him power to decide when and where aid should be given. Senator Connally, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who submitted the re-written measure to Senate, said the Secretary of State (Mr Acheson) hacl drafted the new bill and the Defence Secretary (Mr Johnson) approved it.

The bill limits rearmament assistance to North Atlantic Treaty signatories and Greece, Turkey, Persia, Korea, and the Philippines. It retains the total of assistance of the original bi 11—51,150.000,00 Mr Truman had insisted. Senator Vandenberg, leading Republican spokesman on foreign affairs. said the new bill overcame most of the objections of himself and some of his 'colleagues against the wide powers conferred on the President under the original legislation.

Mr John Foster Dulles said the Administration's cooperative disposition wouic! contribute to continuing the bipartisan foreign policy. Some Republican representatives still criticise the cost of the programme, and Mr John Vorys, a leading Republican spokesman in the House, said: "The whole thing has to be reduced." COMMITTEE HEARINGS Senate committees will open hearings on August 8. when Mr Acheson will testify. Mr Johnson will testify on August Si followed by the Chiefs of Staff, now in Europe. The American ambassadors to France, Italy and Norway, in separate statements to the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee today. emphasised that the armed forces of those countries critically need modern American military equipment if they are to have a sense of security against Communist threats. M, David Bruce (France) said: “The French Army is not now capable even of a delaying action oc consequence against a well-equipped, aggressive enemy, intent on conquest.” “PEACE MARCH” IN PARIS

Hundreds of -teel-helmeted police and security guards, with rifles. Tommy-guns and tear-gas equipment, took up positions in. the Place de la Concorde, Paris, this afternoon to counter a Communist “peace march on the American Embassy." staged as a protest against the “war mission” of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff. Police had forbidden the demonstration, which was videly advertised by Communist newspapers and posters. Demonstrators were out in strength, but they were prevented from getting near the Embassy. Some clashes with the police occurred and a few arrests were made, but there were no serious incidents. USEFUL CONVERSATION Hundreds more police stood guard outside the Defence Ministry, where the defence chiefs talked. Two meetings were held today. In the morning, the American chiefs talked with French defence chiefs, and in the afternoon there was a conference between the Americans and the Western European Commanders-4n-Chiei Committee, An official communique said a useful conversation took placr “in a most cordial atmosphere. There was much understanding on both sides.”