BOMBERS FOR BRITAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27383, 8 May 1950, Page 5

BOMBERS FOR BRITAIN

Ready-made Strategic Air Force . i • UNITED STATES PROGRAMME New Zealand Press Association—Reuter—Copyright Rec. 8.55 p.m. WASHINGTON, May 6. Britain will receive at least 200 829 Super Fortress bombers from the United States by June 30, 1951, according to North Atlantic Treaty rearmament plans under discussion in Washington, says Reuter. The objective of the United States plan is to supply Britain with a ready-made strategic air force to enable her to fulfil the bombing role assigned to her under the North Atlantic defence plan to be approved by the North Atlantic Council at its meeting in London beginning on May 15.

It is proposed that, in the event of war with Russia, Britain will use the Super Fortresses for bombing such Russian targets as would be within their range. The United States Air Force would employ long-range 836 bombers and modern 850 bombers. These are replacing the Super Fortresses of which the United States has a surplus of at least 1000. It is expected that by the end of next June at least 70 modernised Super Fortresses will have been transferred to Britain. United States officials said today that it was likely that American jet fighters capable of escorting the bombers for 1000 miles would be supplied to the Royal Air Force. Aim of London Meeting The Secretary of State, Mr Dean Acheson, declared today that the Western Foreign Ministers’ conference opening in London next week would seek the speedier mobilisation of the free world and the development of its untapped n.oral and material resources. Mr Acheson made this declaration as he boarded his plane for Paris, where he will confer with the French Foreign Minister, M. Robert Schuman, before going to London. Mr Acheson said: “Free men and free nations everywhere will face increasingly crucial tests in the years immediately ahead. What we seek at London is to accelerate the mobilisation of our moral and material resources. We must develop those resources to tha, best of our ability. We should be doing so even if international Communism did not exist. As things are, we must do so with the utmost vigour. These matters will be important in themselves, but I believe they will be even more important in laying the basis for continued concerted action. We must have firm faith in ourselves and in the values for which our country and the other free countries stand. “The forthcoming meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Council will be the first in which the 12 Foreign Ministers will engage in a full substantive discussion of political, economic and military problems involved in attaining the objectives of the treaty. Its primary objective is to strengthen peace by strengthening the common free heritage of the parties and their ability to defend it," Mr Acheson said.