DEFENCE PLANS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26770, 13 May 1948, Page 7

DEFENCE PLANS

REQUEST TO UNITED STATES SENATE ATLANTIC UNION POSSIBLE N.Z.P.A.—Copyright Rec. 8.30 p.m. WASHINGTON, May 11. The Administration to-day asked the Senate to pass a resolution endorsing collective defence arrangements such as the Western European Union and affirming the right of individual nations to combine in self-defence in the event of armed attack. The Administration's request was presented in the form of a draft resolution to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but it does not refer specificially to the possibility of the United States supplying military lendiease to Western Europe upon entering into commitments comparable to a military alliance. It does, however, lay the ground work for 'such a proposal, and emphasises that collective defence agreements are legally within the framework of the United Nations. The resolution proposes strengthening the United Nations by “a voluntary agreement to remove the veto from all questions involving pacific settlements of international disputes and the admission of new members.” That would leave the veto intact in any question involving using force to carry out a United Nations decision. Reuter’s says that the resolution holds out the possibility that the United States might enter some sort of Atlantic union of North American and Western European nations comparable to the defence system of the Pan-American pact.