Evening star., 1950-08-05
British and Allied Reormoment

In response to request by the United States,
Prime Minister Attlees Labor government has
now drafted considerably expanded three-year
rearmament program for Britain. Assuming that
1t is put into full effect the program, If accom-
panied by similar action in France and other
Atlantic Pact countries, can hardly fail to
bulwark the security and safety of Western
Europe and the free world a whole
What the British propose to de-in principle
at leaSt-is to increase their annual defense
expenditures from figure equivalent to almost
8 per cent of their national income to full 10
per cent. Expressed in dollar terms, this means
that they are prepared to do proportionately
about as much as we are doing by investing
approximately 81 billion more year in military
outlays than they have been investing up to now
an expansion involving a total cost of $9520,
O000 900 over the next three years
AS for their armed forces in being, the
British, without mentioning any specific figures
in their public statement on the subject, have
announced that orders have been issued calling
up reservists for the Army and Navy In addition
the statement has made point of emphasizing
that compulsory military training has long been
100000 youths have received such training in
the past five years, and that therefore the
country has Substantial and steadily increaS-
ing' pool of young trained manpower over and
above its regular reserve and the 1000 900 older
individuals who saw service in the last war.
In the present circumstances, according to
the British statement, the most urgent need is
not in the field of manpoWer but in the field
OF defense equpment-a field where a sharp
production expansion has been made mandatory
by the heightened threat of worldwide Commu-
mist aggression. That is why the Attlee govern
ment, though aware that the project will slow
down the country's peacetime recovery and entail
sacrifices for all Brtons, has declared its readi-
ness to undertake the stepped-up program it has
outlined-"the largest program practicable within
the period envisaged" and without resorting to
sweeping mobilization controls.
But in projecting all this the British have
been at pains to declare that it cannot be carried
out without Substantial" aid from the United
States in addition to that being extended under
the Marshall Plan. Presumably-as indicated by
President TrumanS laudatory reaction to the
Labor governments proposed rearmament-this
aspect of the problem is we'll understood here in
Washington. Apparently the extra aid, wholly
apart from heavily increased arms shipments
under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program
will have to be in the form of machine tools, raw
materials and dollars
Just how much additional aid will be required
is matter still subject to study and negotiation,
and there probably will be room for debate over
it. What is not debatabe, however, is the fact
that the more and the faster Britain rearms the
safer the West will be. The same holds true for
all our other Allies in Europe That is why 1t
is reassuring to know that the representatives
of the 12-nation Atlantic Pact are agreed
unanimously on this view The sooner the Job
is done the better. There is no time to lose.