Common Cause

Canadian-U.S. defense is being geared to a new peacetime concept: a coordinated arms program. For a start, Canada has plans to manufacture U.S.-type planes for both the R.C.A.F. and the U.S. Air Force. If that works out, the idea can be extended to guns (which both would make), tanks (U.S.-made), patrol craft and antisub boats (Canada-made).

The program has been in the works since Minister of Trade & Commerce Clarence Decatur Howe broached it to top U.S. brass in Washington last summer. The first step was to get the approval of the National Military Establishment, which controls the designs of U.S. planes. The second was to make a deal with the U.S. aircraft manufacturers.

Dollars for Planes. Last week a mission* returned to Ottawa with word that Canada could make North American's F-86 jet fighter. Also in prospect was a license on a U.S. transport (perhaps Fairchild's C-82) to be built in Canada.

Canada, which turned out 16,500 airframes during the war, needs no new plants. Canadian Car & Foundry, which made North American trainers and bombers during the war, could build the fighter; Canadair Ltd. (currently building Canadair Fours for B.O.A.C. and C.P.A.) could handle the transport. Engines for both would be U.S.-or British-built.

Ottawa reasons that if either Canada or the U.S. goes to war, the other will inevitably be an active ally. Standardization of arms is obviously desirable. Canada would like to start the project with 1,500 to 2,000 planes, the first half for the R.C.A.F. and the second half for the U.S. With the dollars obtained from selling the planes to the U.S., Canada could pay for purchases of U.S.-produced armaments.

Dispersal for War. Canada has already picked her man to run the show: tall, tight-lipped Sydney David Pierce, 47, onetime Olympic hurdler and Associated Press reporter. During World War II he was stationed in Washington, working on mutual production problems. Since last June, though still nominally Canadian ambassador to Mexico, he has been in Paris watching Canada's interest in ECA.

Before the arms program can really get under way, Congress must pass a law permitting the sale of U.S. armaments to Canada. Although Washington has said nothing officially, the Canadian plan clearly enough dovetails into U.S. strategy. It would, in effect, boost the U.S. industrial potential in case of war, and it would help disperse the aircraft industry.

* Headed by two men: 1) Air Vice Marshal Arthur Lome James, the boss of the R.C.A.F.'s technical division; 2) William Lowe, the man who runs the government-owned Canadian Commercial Corp.

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