"Is This Enough?"

Canada last week edged one small step closer to the war in Korea and began to give its armed forces a little more muscle.

Cabinet ministers were recalled from their holidays to consider a request from the U.N. for Canadian ground troops in Korea. After a three-hour cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent gave a summary of Canada's plans. The cabinet had decided to: < P:Turn down the U.N. appeal for ground troops. ("The dispatch at this stage of ex isting first-line elements of the Canadian army . . . would not be warranted.") P: Send an R.C.A.F. transport squadron (up to ten planes) to help the U.S. airlift across the Pacific. The North Star planes, with crews and 200 ground personnel, were to fly to McChord field, near Tacoma, Wash., this week to operate be tween there and Tokyo.

P: Lift the ceilings on recruiting for all services (total present strength: 46,889) to enlist up to 8,000 more regulars. P:Commission three more ships for the navy and speed up production of F-86's for the air force.

P: Increase defense spending by at least $50 million (present estimate: $425 million).

Of all its decisions, the cabinet's turndown to the U.N. bid for ground forces stirred up the greatest reaction in & out of Canada. Off the record, Washington insiders called it "disappointing."

Many Canadians felt the same way.

The Ottawa Journal angrily demanded: "Is this enough?" About the only groups who came out strongly against sending Canadian troops to Korea were the Union des Electeurs, a French Canadian isolationist party, and Canada's Communists.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.