DOMINIONS AND UNITED STATES MAY HAVE TO TAKE OVER BRITISH OVERSEAS DEFENCES

Wanganui Chronicle, 21 April 1950, Page 5

DOMINIONS AND UNITED STATES MAY HAVE TO TAKE OVER BRITISH OVERSEAS DEFENCES

LONDON, April 20 (Rec. 6 pm).—Dominions, Colonics, and the United States are likely to be asked to take over next year the bulk of the ground defence commitments of Great Britain outside Europe, says the “Daily Mail.”

Back-stage discussions on these proposals have been conducted for months. Two days ago the Australian Prime Minister, Mr. Menzies, said his country “would seriously consider any request from the British Government for help in Malaya.” Last week-end the French Foreign Minister, Mr. Schuman, pleaded at the Western Union Conference for “redistribution of the financial and manpower burden of defence proportionate to the resources of the member States of the Western Union.” The issue is clear cut, adds the “Daily Mail.” The military demands made on Britain under the Western Union defence plan call for at, least ' two corps, each of two divisions, to | he available immediately on the Con- . tineric once the threat of war be- I

[comes concrete. They would be a part of an overall force of 20 to 25 ■regular divisions, drawn from the Brussels Treaty Powers, who would have to hold the front until mobiliI sation had taken place in all coun- ‘ j tries. I Under an agreement on “status of the armed forces” signed by the Foreign Ministers of all the Western Union Powers last December, a British contribution, of at least four! ; regular divisions, should be stationed ’ if not in Germany in France, Bel- | I gium, Holland, or Luxembourg before any outbreak of war. Their imi mediate presence on the spot is part, 1 of the whole plan. I Th/? “Mail” adds (hat the Ministry ' I of Defence and War Office have ad-1 milled that these four divisions are' (not available now, and with the pre-I

sent military commitments overseas it is impossible to state when they will be ready. At the moment effective British troops available for Western European defence fall short of two divisions. The new proposals now being discussed by planning committees would result, in two-thirds reduction of British troops in Hongkong and Malaya, their places being taken by volunteer forces from Australia and New Zealand. Eritrea, the Middle East and North Africa would be garrisoned on similar proportions by troops, possibly drawn from South Africa and by native troops from East and West Africa. It is hoped, in view of the great importance of Saudi Arabia to the J United States that American military forces might be also sent to share in ■ the ground defence. Any assurance that. Canada would send a division to I Britain or Europe on a future D Day I would enable the Western Union de-1 fence plans to be strengthened.