Canadian Defence Plan Outlined In Report

Chronicle (Levin), 14 November 1949, Page 5

Canadian Defence Plan Outlined In Report

. OTTAWA, Nov. 11. Ganada is developing a radar warniiig system to cover ' ' certain vital approaches" and other strategic areas, states a report tabled in the House of Commons by the Minister of Defence, Mr Brooke Claxton. It was impractieable, the Minister said, to construct a grid of radar stations similar iri density and consequent effectiveness to the installations during the last war in Britain and Germany. The best-info'rmed opinion considered that the likeliest kind of attack on Canada would be in the form of diversionary raids, designed to panic North America into diverting a disproportionate amount of effort into passive local defence. Canada, to meet this kind of attack, planned a relatively small but highlytrained elficient mobile ground force to back the radar warning system, jet interceptor planes, and anti-air-craft defences. The White Paper says that among the Commonwealth countries Canada 's per capita expenditure on defence is second only to that of the United Kingdom. Its active and reserve forces are considerably larger in proportion to the population than those of Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa. It shows the strength of the armed forces as navy 8872, army 19,931, air force 19,356. New equipment for the forces will cost 124,000,000 dollars in the currentfinancial year. Contracts totalling 40,000,000 dollars have been awarded for the iargest peaeetime warship building programme in Canadian history, and new jet fighters are to be built in Canada to American designs.