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// 51' J"/. S" $' Wl!t.r /..,, ~ s T 

Canada Looks To 

'Northern Air Ring 

By Marquis Childs 

OTTAWA, Canada.-In the great empty 

spaces far to the north of the thin line of 

J!OpUlation in this relatively empty land, the 

future of the American Continent-whether 

in fact it is to have a future-may be determined. 

Tbis is one of the great 

cloudy. unresolved issues 

· about . which the people, · 

both in Canada and the 

United States, remain in al- .. 

most complete ignorance. ') 

If the United States with 

Its vast industrial potential 

is to have a fair degree of 

protection from an atomic 

•pearl Harbor launched by Childs 

the Russians across the top of the world, 

. then a radar warning fence must be built 

·somewhere to the north. But how far 

north how extensive, how it is to be 

mann~d, all these. questions remain to be 

settled between the two countries. , · 

This is a part, a vital part, of the problem of continental defense with which the 

top policy-makers in the Eisenhower Aiministration have been wrestling for many 

troubled weeks. With President Eisenhower 

giving the final assent, the National Security 

Council bas now agreed on a decision to 

let the public know at least the outlines 

of the danger and what ican be done to 

meet it. This may also mean increased 

pressure to get on with a working agreement between the United States and the 

neighbor on the north that now and then 

feels itself too readily taken for granted. 

There have been a· half dozen technical 

studies of this problem, all of them highly 

secret. One was known as Project Lincoln, 

carried out by the Massachusetts Institute 

of Technology for the Air Force. In a joint 

. . operation with Canada under the direction 

·of Project Lincoln, some important tests 

were made in the late spring and early 

summer in the Arctic wastes on_ Canada's 

northern boundary. 

ID:A39361 

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THE AIR FORCE provided 20 million doJ. 

lars to carry out these tests. They were 

Concerned with such difficult technical 

questions as whether a radar warning sys· 

tem can function at · that northern latitude 

against the interference of the Aurora 

Borealis Jnd other natural obstacles. When 

the northern lights are active in the winter 

months, wireless communications are di~ 

rupted often for days at a .urne. 

Study and appraisal of the results of the 

test were estimated to ·take a year. Not Until 

next spring, therefore, will the data be avail· 

able. But many Americans and some Canadians are beginning to wonder whether the 

basic d~cisions can wait that long. Fot' 

after they are taken, months and years of 

planning and construction will be required 

to build a fence which would give an attack · warning of from an hour to 2¥.a hours for 

America's cities. · 

In the past Canadians have felt unhappy 

over widely advertised plans of the American Air Force to send bombers across 

Canadian territory to attack Soviet targets 

by the northern route in the event of war. 

It was felt that this might bring retaliation 

from Russian attacks falling short of the; 

United States, b~t causing widespread di· 

struction in Canada. 

Some of this apprehension has . been r~ 

moved by construction of the Air Force's; 

great base at Thule on Greenland. The De·' 

partment of Defense is currently taking a 

group, of newspapermen on an inspection 

of that forward post for launching a retalia· 

tory_ strike. If it is decided to build a far 

north warning system,· Thule would also be 

a. useful point from whic1!, to extend opera- tions. - · 

fl't.t 

A JOINT Canadian-American radar network is now being bullt in what has been 

described as the "seminortberly parts of 

Canada." This will cost when completed 

hundreds of millions of dollars, two thirds · 

of which is being furnished by the United 

States, one third by Canada. The exact 

amount is secret since it would reveal too 

much to intelligence agents able to break 

down such figures. In a discussion in the 

Canadian House of Commons it was di~ 

closed that construction and development 

of one ~adar station, at St. Margarets, New 

Brunswick, had cos~ $3,223,688. 

This warning system covers only selected 

target areas in the United States~ It falls 

far short of the kind of protective :ilert 

urged in Project Lincoln and similar studies. 

· Here the experts disagree. Gen. Oma:t 

Bradley, retired chairman of the United 

States Joint Chiefs of Staff and a close 

friend and collaborator with Canada's Lieut' · 

Gen. Charles Foulkes, Canadian Chiefs of 

Staff chairman, had long held that . a truly 

effective system could be built by· pushing 

north from the northernmost railway line. 

Others insist that the line must be started 

Jn the Arctic north and pushed south. But 

a measure of the gravity and the urgency 

of th~ problem was Bradley's final warning 

that 1t should be taken up as quickly a.; 

possible between President Eisenhower and 

Prime Minister St. Laurent ..