FOREIGN LEGIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27450, 25 July 1950, Page 5

FOREIGN LEGIONS

Germans And Japanese American Writer's Proposal Rec. 10.30 p.m. NEW YORK, July 24. Japan and Germany are the only principal sources from which the Western Allies can get the extra manpower they need to help to contain the Russian-inspired Communist aggression, said Mr Hanson Baldwin, .military editor of the New York Times, today. He said the Western Powers should conclude a separate peace treaty with Japan immediately and give the Japanese the responsibility of defending their own islands with the United States retaining the right to maintain bases there. Mr Baldwin said the Western Allies should form the Western German police force or army but keep it under Allied control. He also suggested an organisation of the foreign legions of Japanese, Germans and other foreigners under an American or Allied high command. These legions should be offered to the United Nations to oppose aggression by Soviet satellite forces. Mr Baldwin said there was a threat of Soviet-inspired war in a number of places, principally Formosa, Persia and Yugoslavia. The Western Allies are confronted with the problem of what to do about aggression in any of these places. How far should Allied aid go? he asked. He said American strength is needed in Western Europe, perhaps more than anywhere else in the world. The United States must not become too committed in Korea, which was a strategic . “ side show ” lest it did not have enough strength for the strategic main show. The United States must retain ability to concentrate strong forces where they were most needed. Mr Baldwin said American political commitments must be limited to the ability of American military strength to back them up. The United States should frankly inform friendly Governments just what help they_ could expect from the United States in case of a Soviet-inspired attack.