U.S. AS ARSENAL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22341, 28 May 1947, Page 5

U.S. AS ARSENAL

WEST HEMISPHERE ARMING AND TRAINING ALL STATES’ FORCES WASHINGTON. May 26. President Truman, in a message from Kansas City, today asked Congress for authority to arm, equip and train the armed forces of the Western Hemisphere, including Canada. Saying that although Congress had not granted a similar request he made last year, world developments had since given hemisphere collaboration still greater importance. The legislation suggested would authorise the United States to instruct and train military personnel of other American countries, maintain, repair and rehabilitate their military and naval equipment and supply them with arms and ammunition . Standardisation of Arms and Methods The broad programme which President Truman outlined in the message read to Congress included the standardisation of armaments and military methods throughout the hemisphere, and stipulated that the recipients should not transfer equipment to other nations. President Truman said the recipients would have to pay the costs of any material especially manufactured for them, and could give the United States their present military equipment as partial payment. The United States would confine military support to “reasonable and limited purposes.” "Indiscriminate Distribution” “This Government will not in any way approve of or participate in the indiscriminate or unrestricted distribution of armaments,” he added. The programme would be subject to any general system of regulation of armaments which the United Nations might adopt. President Truman emphasised that it would be the United States Government’s policy to encourage sound economic conditions in other American countries as “pre-requisite to internal peace and security.”