CANADA: Comparable Contribution

After months of listening in pained and piqued silence, Ottawa formally replied last week to persistent U.S. complaints that Canada is not pulling a full oar in Western defense. At the Commercial Club of Chicago, Canada's Trade & Commerce Minister C. D. Howe told an audience of businessmen exactly what Canada's contribution to Western defense is:

¶ A projected three-year defense expenditure of $5 billion.

¶Three destroyers, an R.C.A.F. transport squadron, a 6,000-man brigade for Korea.

¶ Another brigade, eleven fighter squadrons, weapons for about four divisions for NATO.

¶A projected navy of 100 ships (present strength: 40), with reinforced air arm.

¶Heavy production of aircraft, radar equipment, guns, small arms and ammunition, jet engines, anti-submarine ships for Canada and her allies.

Said Howe: "On a per capita basis, we shall probably carry more [of a defense load] than many of our allies ... To you in the United States who are used to thinking in astronomical totals, the figures may not appear large, but relatively, they represent something like a comparable drain on the national output."