TRUMAN ASKS CONGRESS FOR BIG DEFENCE VOTE

Grey River Argus, 3 April 1948, Page 5

TRUMAN ASKS CONGRESS FOR BIG DEFENCE VOTE

(Received April 2, at 10.0 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 1. Authority from Congress to increase the expenditure on defence by 3,375,000,000 dollars was sought by President Truman today.

' In a letter to the Speaker of the House, Mr. Joseph Martin, the President said that he had authorised the Secretary ofADefence, Mr. James Forrestal, to prepare estimates for an expenditure of an additional three thousand million dollars on defence establishments. He also asked Congress to authorise an immediate addition to the defence budget for the next fiscal year of 375,000,000 dollars for the stockpiling of strategic and critical materials. These additions to the defence budget would increase it to fourteen thousand million dollars, providing for:— (1) Three thousand more air-

craft and an increase in the Air Force’s personnel from 364,000 to 400,000 -men. (2) An increase in the Army’s strength from 542,000 to 782,000 men. (3) An increase in the Navy’s strength from 397,000 to 460,000 men, and in the Marine Corps from 81,000 to 92,000 men. (4) The improvement of radar and other warning systems along the Arctic Perimeter.