Evening star., 1955-02-17
British Plan to Make H-Bombs;
Production Of Guided Missiles
Also Scheduled for Expansion
TotoI Expenditure
For Defense to Be
Cut Somewhat
BY The Asseeiussd Press

49,"
BY shs Assoeiatsd Press
LONDON, Feb. 17.-Britain
announced today she viii de-
velop hydrogen bombs.
A white paper listing govern
ment defense plans said:
"The United Kingdom has the
ability to produce thermonuclear
weapons and after fully con-
sidering an implications of this
step the government have
thought it their duty to proceed
with their development and pro-
duction."
Britain has the atomic bomb.
The United States and presunl-
ably Russia are the only powers
now possessing the vastly more
destructive hydrogen bomb.
Guided Missile Expansion.
The white paper announced a
broad expansion Of Britain's
guided missile and nuclear weap-
on production program while
trimming somewhat the Nations
total military expenditures.
Sweeping modernization Of the
navy. army and the civil de-
tense setup also was announced.
Britain's defense, the govern
ment policy statement explained,
remains based primarily upon
the maintenance Of the nuclear
deterrent to aggression" The
white paper said the power of
such weapons as the hydrogen
bomb was SO awesome that this
fact in itself may keep the peace.
It said there were no tech
nical or scientific limitations on
production Of nuclear weapons
"still more devastating" than
the thermo-nuclear bomb ex-
ploded by the Americans in the
Marshall Islands last March /.
"The power Of these weapons
is such that accuracy of aim
assumes less Importance. Thus
attacks can be delivered by air.
craft flying at great speed and
great heights. This greatly in
creases the difficulty Of defense.
Moreover, other means Of de-
livery can be ~foreseen which
will in time present even greater
problems"
Defense Spending Cut.
For the fiscal year beginning
April /. Britain will spend 1884,
100000 pounds $4,303. 800, ,000)
on defense--a reduction Of 102
million pounds t$285 million)
from the total for the present
budgeted year.
Russia's 1855 defense budget,
announced in the Supreme Soviet
(parliament) February 8, is 112,-
100,000,000 rubles. At the
Russian-Axed exchange rate that
is $28 billion, an increase of So
billion over last year. The United
States defense budget this year
is $34 billion.
Discussing the basic policies
. behind Western defense the
British white paper said:
"The armed truce of recent
years may develop through CO.
existence into real peace"
Communist System Unaltered.
It saw the structure of the
Communist system as basically
unaltered and said:
"Its (the Communist world's)
military strength continues to
grow at an impressive rate. On
the surface Communist policies
may appear from time to time
more accommodating. But Com
munist actions have so far pro-
vided no real ground for believ-
ing the threat to the free world
has sensibly diminished"
The Government policy state
ment went on to add that the
very power Of the atomic and
hydrogen bombs might help pre-
serve the peace even when the
Vests present predominance in
nuclear weapons stocks and
means Of delivering them has
been reduced.
From a universal realization
that results Of a major war can
be utterly disastrous for both,
sides may emerge a new hope"