Evening star., 1952-01-18

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with President Truman before
leaving for New York by train at
noon tomorrow.
Prior to his air briefing Mr..
Churchill, accompanied by Air
Chief Marshal Sir william Elliott.
British member Of the three
power standing group Of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organ
ization. and Lord Cherwell.
General who Is the
British governments atomic energy
expert, spent an hour and IS
minutes in conference with Sec
retary of Defense Lovett in the
latter's Office.
Visit Not on Schedule.
The Prime Minister'S schedule
had not listed the Pentagon visit.
The Defense Department merely
stated that:
Prime Minister Churchill ar
rived at the Pentagon at 1910
this morning for conference with
Secretary Lovett and the secre-
taries of the three military serv.
ices and members Of their stats.
The subject was defense matters
Of mutual interest"
The official memorandum to the
press made no mention Of the air
briefing, but after the meeting in
Mr.. Lovett's Office, the party got
into the secretary's private ele-
vator-the only one Of its kind
in the huge building-and de.
scended to the sub-basement.
There extra precautions had
been taken and an air Of secrecy
|reigned as colonels and other high
ranking officers were stationed at
all entrances.
Worldwide Connections.
The command post under the
direction Of Maj. Gen. Roger
Ramey, Air Force Director Of Ops
erations, has worldwide commu.
nication connections and operates
"a hours a day. It is into this
post that all alerts Of enemy at.
tacks would filter. It was the
first time Mr.. Churchill ever vis-
tied the installation and 1t was
considered significant that he was
given an Air Force briefing.
Among those present at the ses-
sion was Gen. Hoyt S. vanden-
berg. Air Chief of Staff.
Others who accompanied the
party into the post were the three
service secretaries-Pace, Army:
Kimball, Navy. and Finletter, Air
Force-and Deputy Secretary Of
Defense William c. Foster.
Some of the things Mr.. Church.
i'll told Congress yesterday stirred
disquiet among his listeners de.
spite general praise for the elo.
quent British leader.
Both Democratic and Repub.
lican lawmakers SHE'D away from
Mr.. Churchill's suggestion that
token forces of the United
States and other nations step into
the Suez Canal crisis. Others saw
dangers in his request for Amer.
ican steel.
British Ambassador Sir Oliver
Franks went to the State Depart
ment at noon today to initial an
agreement worked out as a result
Of the Truman Churchill talks
last week concerning arrange
mentS for Britain to get more
steel and the United States to get
more British tin and Canadian
aluminium. Details Of the agree.
ment were announced by the
White House later in the day.
Mr.. Churchill's conference with
Mr.. Truman. scheduled for this
Afternoon, was believed aimed
at trying to settle differences over
whether an American should head
an Atlantic naval command under
the North Atlantic Treaty Organi.
zation.
The question was left unsolved
in four days of Churchill Truman
talks last week which produced
agreement on many other issues
and laid the basis for British
teamwork on major
world problems.
Before his White House con-
ference. Mr.. Churchill was to
speak for "background"-which
means that his remarks may not
be quoted-at q luncheon given
by Washington reporters in the
Hotel.
n