CHANGED POLICY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27447, 21 July 1950, Page 7

CHANGED POLICY

Rearmament Plans Of Western Allies

DESIGNED TO MEET LIMITED WARS

NZPA —Copyright Rec. 1 a.m. NEW YORK, July 20. The rearmament of the Western Allies must be planned to deal effectively with the possibility of a series of limited wars such as that in Korea on a continuing basis, says the diplomatic correspondent of the New York Times. Rearmament must not be planned wholly or even primarily to fight a major defensive war against Russia. This assumption was one of several on which President Truman based his call for partial mobilisation.

The correspondent quotes well-in-formed officials in Washington as his source for the recital of other assumptions. These are: 1. The atomic bomb may serve as a deterrent against a Russian attack on Western Europe but it will not deter the Communists from starting limited engagements, particularly in Asia.

2. Man-power and tactical air power are what are needed, and quickly. It is now admitted in official quarters that there has been too much reliance and far too much talk about wonderful new weapons that will make tanks and large ground armies obsolete. 3. Military production must have at least equal priority with economic recovery in Marshall Plan countries. If this hampers economic recovery in Europe, the United States Government will do what it can to provide additional dollar assistance, particularly by placing some military production orders in North Atlantic Treaty countries. 4. Political commitments to defend certain areas of Europe and the North Atlantic are insufficient. There must be a review of United States commitments in the Middle East and Asia, but at the same time a supreme effort must be made to bring the power of the Atlantic nations into line with commitments.

American officers recognise as long-term strategy that the United States dare not allow the Communists to force them into expensive operations against the Kremlin’s satellites while the Red Army remains free to strike when and where it likes.

The correspondent adds that the pace and direction of Allied rearmament is being changed. The effort to complete the defensive phase of the North Atlantic Treaty will be moved up at least a year. The assumption that the atom bomb will give the Western Allies time to concentrate on economic recovery will be dropped. The development of atomic guided missiles and other weapons of the future will go forward, but the difference is that the policy now will not be based so much upon them. Officials see all this as meaning a larger standing army on a permanent basis than the United States has ever before contemplated, with a lot of it standing in widelyscattered places overseas.