Short of Requirements

An aroused Great Britain was closer to war preparedness last week than at any time since 1945. But she was still not ready for war.

After Defense Minister Emanuel Shinwell, his face grave, had reported that Britain's present defenses fall "a long way short of requirements," Parliament approved a defense budget increase of -L-100 million ($280 million). This brought defense spending to -L-880 million, about one quarter of the entire budget. The new money will be spent on a reserve of jet fighter planes, reconditioning Britain's reserve of 6,000 tanks, equipping the Royal Navy with anti-submarine devices, new antitank and antiaircraft guns, and radar predictors.

Scattered Army. Britain now has 827,000 men & women in uniform, counting the regular army, navy and air force, plus draftees and territorials. But the army is scattered far & wide: two understrength divisions in Germany, a brigade in Austria and one in Trieste, three divisions spread over the Middle and Far East, a Gurkha division in Malaya, about 60,000 other "colonial" troops in Africa, Malta, etc.

Military strength on the home front is desperately weak. The government hoped this week to increase the strength of the home army to 400,000. In an emergency there was a further reserve of four million trained World War II veterans.

Opposition Leader Winston Churchill wanted the whole defense position debated in a secret session of the House of Commons. When his motion was defeated by one vote (296 to 295), Churchill dramatically cast aside a prepared speech and gave the country a few hard facts. In the event of a new world war, said Churchill, the West has no present means of stopping a Russian sweep through Europe. Churchill said the Russians had 40,900 tanks. It was true, he said, that U.S. planes now based in Britain could hit Russian cities and key points with atom bombs, but the Russians would then seize airfields on the French coast.

"They could, I fear, outnumber us in the air," said Churchill, "by a far larger number of machines than Hitler ever had. We would also be subject to a bombardment by rocket-propelled and guided missiles--I am not speaking of atom bombs --incomparably more severe than anything we have endured or imagined ... We are more defenseless than we have ever been and I find this a terrible thought."

Shocking Booklet. Perhaps the greatest shock to British complacency last week was a little blue-covered booklet of 62 pages issued by H. M. Stationery Office entitled: Civil Defence Manual of Basic Training--Volume II, Atomic Warfare. The booklet described all the measures to be taken against atomic blast and radioactivity. At two shillings (28^), it was an immediate sellout.

Photographs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed how the worst effects of atomic explosion could be avoided by: 1) adequate dispersal of population, 2) deep shelters, 3) a trained civil-defense force, including special fire, ambulance and police services. Volunteers for this force (over military age) numbered 48,000 at the end of June. More were wanted. The uniform of the atomic civil-defense corps would be dark blue, the government announced, apparently unaware (as the Manchester Guardian wryly pointed out) that its own booklet warned that dark cloth gave less protection than light cloth against atomic heat flash.

Stepped-Up Fleet. At week's end, the Defense Department alerted all reserves for army & navy and stopped the release of officers and men whose term of service was expiring. The Admiralty put the British Far East Fleet (now one light fleet carrier, three cruisers, 16 destroyers and frigates) on a "fullscale war footing" by recalling 1,100 reserve specialists, including about 50 navy pilots, and reactivating two 13,000-ton aircraft carriers. The army set about assembling a "self-contained land force" for Korea (see WAR IN ASIA).

Said Shinwell: "In the present situation it is only deeds that will count."

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