“EXTREMELY SCANTY” NEWS ABOUT U.K. ARMAMENT PROGRAMME

Wanganui Chronicle, 21 November 1950, Page 5

“EXTREMELY SCANTY” NEWS ABOUT U.K. ARMAMENT PROGRAMME

LONDON, Nov. 19 (Rec. 6 pm).— Complaint that the British Government is giving the public “extremely scanty” news about the rearmament programme is made by the “Daily Telegraph” in a leader. Ministers rarely recall its existence, and though it is not due to get into its stride before next April, nevertheless, says the newspaper, it is essential that during the preparatory period plans should be well laid if there is to be a burst of munitions production in the spring.

It is not reassuring, says the “Daily Telegraph,” to learn from Sir Robert Sinclair, president of lhe Federation of British Industries, that industry is still “short, of adequate information as to what is expected from it.” Enquiring why the Government is so long taking industry into its confidence, the article asks whether lhe Government does not yet know what it wants or whether it is trying to do all the planning and estimating in Whitehall Unfortunately, it continues, it appears that negotiations with America about the assistance which she proffered are still hanging fire. “II is not clear to what extent this delay is holding up British Government’s plans, but it. ought not to be a serious hindrance at this stage. The public is being left, almost completely in lhe dark on a subject which ought to be the main preoccupation. • There can be no pretence that the country has as yet become defence-minded. Neither morally nor materially is

there adequate preparation against, the peril which events have nowise diminished since the first shock of aggression in Korea. Instead of rousing and uniting the nation, the Government distracts it with irrelevances

like the nationalisation of iron and steel and the adumbration of permanent controls.