MILLIONS STILL UNDER ARMS

Chronicle (Levin), 13 May 1947, Page 8

MILLIONS STILL UNDER ARMS

Press Assn.-

WORLD SURVEY MAKES STARTLING READ1NG

By Telegraph

-Copyright

Reeeived Moiiday, 8.55 p.m. •' NEW TORU, May 11. Almost 19,000,000 men are under arms throiigftout the World and about 40 nations are spending at least 27,400,000,000 dollafs yearly on arrnaments, aceoi'dntg to a New YqvIs .Times' survey based on data gathered by its military editor, Major 'Hapson Baldwin, and correspondents in maily other couiitiies. The survey indicates that the nations are spending' perhaps 10,000,000,000 dollars more on arrnaments than they did iii 1938 and probably more men are in uniform today than in prewar years, despite the disappearanee o£ Germany and Japan as military powers. .... - The New York Times, while pointing out tliat part of the increase is a paper one beeause of intlated eurrency values, and also the difficulties in obtaining exaet figures, declares: "World military statistics available today, which are shrouded in much greater secreey than they were before the war, indieate a parallel between the present era and the post-world war oue era of 1919-22 when an arrnaments race was threatened. Then the race centred on naval construction. Today millions, perhaps billions of dollars, in concealed funds, are being spent on researeh and development into atom bomb, baeteriologieal warfare, guided inissiles, jetplanes and other new weapons. „ "The pictnre the survey reflects is drab. It shows the. nations, many of tiiem wreeked by the war and straggliitg under major economic burdens, attempting' to maintain large military forces. Mven small nations bowed beneat.h crushing taxation are allocatmg major parts of tlieir budgets to military expenditures although the forces tfius created could do little against the strength of -a major Power."

The survey shows that peacetime con,stription is now almost universal. Its ajjplieation, however, varies so widely tliat there is no .comnion denominator. Despite the techmlogicai revolution ili warfare and- the arrival of the air age eniphasised by the second world war, the world is spending the bulk of its direct military appropriations on ground arnnes many countries having liuge standing arinies. China, engaged in a bitter civil war, ha^ more men in her arinies — 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 Nat ionalists and 1,000,000 ' to 1,500,000 Gonmiunists — than any other nation. China is also spending the greater part of her intiation svvolien budget for ar mainents than any otlver nation— probably over $0 per eent. Exclusive of the amorphous halfarrued masses divided into warring armies in China, the Bussian armed forces are the largest in the world. The Russian army probably numbers 3,500,000 to 4,100,000 and probably has about 200 divisions organised or partly organised and numbers in its reserve elasfees 7,OUU,O0O to 12,000,000. She.ls exerting a major effort to build up her Vir For *es and, in numbers of Air Foree personnel (000, OUO to 700,000) and in numbers of planes in actual opera-ting squadrons (8000 to 10,000) probably has a larger Air Foree than anv other. Her navv is also large for a power whose use for sea power has been limited. The survey points out, however, that 1)0 th C'hiua and Russia, ptirtieularly Cliina, are less well developed industrially than United States and Britain and industrial strength is the first reC[uirement of a great Air Foree or Navy. Britain and Uflited States, with smaller proportions of their forces in ground troops and a somewhat larger proportion of the total under arms in the Air Forces and sea forces, reflect the influence of the industriali^ation and structure of tlieir armed forces. United States' ground army which wil] total

about 670,000 men on July 1, excIiisiVt of the Army Air Foree, is now organ ised into the equivalent Of about 1.. divisions, two of which are air borne one-third of one division. armoui'ed ant, the rest infantry. The British Army Which totalled 1,210,000 men oh April 1, maintaineu 702, 2U0 as of that date in'the British Isles and Furope. The biggest spender on armed forces •Ls United Wtates, which in dollar valti at unoffieial excliange rates (an unre liable index), wiil spend 34 -per cent oi its pfojected 194S Dudget on military items. United States has so tremendous a lead in sea power that not even Britain is a close second. The tonnage 01 the Ameriean carrier fleet alOne — oveu 100 aireraft earriers of all types displacing more than 1,500,000 tons — is al most as much as the total British ton nage in battleships, battleci'uisers, earriers, eruisers, desti'Oyefs and submarines combined, and is greater than the whole prewar United States fleet. Like United States, however, Britain is not attempting to fceep more than a fraction of her gceat fleet in actiVe or even "reducecl commission. The New York Times admits that beeause of the caTryover of wartime s6crecy into the postwar era, and othei causes, there are big gaps in the survey, pointing out. that . there are Virtually no faets : available direct from Moseow oflicial gources and that Loni don has refused- to give any detailed | analysis of the ptcSent structure of the British military,, sei'viees- or Of ftittire plans. The survey, for example, in eludes a table sliowing that United States has 37,000 and Russia 25,000 military planes of all types in opera tion and in reserve but gives no com--parable flgureg for Britain. The New York Times, however, claims that despite these limitationS, the survey gives a better picttire of the ' illness ot the world than any available since before the war.