Arms policies
Sir: Commander Young. (July. 12). beginning to reveal his true colours.,-He completely and conveniently ignores the fact that the Soviet Union —. with: whom we shared "common cause" during World War II — was a party to the invasion of Poland, and even goes so far as to imply that Soviet domination of Eastern Europe has been benign and beneficial to the peoples involved. I wonder how the Poles, the Hungarians and the Czechs feel about that? On the other hand, Chile, to take one of his examples, elected a minority Communist government under Allende, who then proceeded to force collectivist policies on the population with the aid of armed mobs.
It is clear that Commander Young's eyes are closed to Soviet aggression and perfidy, and to the Soviet preference for alliances with such unsavoury regimes as those in Libya and Uganda. I must repeat my point that Soviet strength in the Indian Ocean has been increased, while that of Britain has been almost entirely eliminated. The French have made only limited efforts to compensate for the rundown of British forces in the area, since French warships only visit the Indian Ocean and are mainly preoccupied with the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, where they are making a strong attempt to compensate for our neglect.
Soviet bases have been established in the Indian Ocean, where they can control entry to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, while they are also fostering rebel movements in the non-Communist countries in the area. Air Vice-Marshal Menaul made his remarks in 1971, before the collapse of detente, and are probably irrelevant in today's changed conditions. United States submarines do not excuse the Soviet naval presence since many of the Soviet warships concerned have only surface-to-surface and anti-shipping capability.
It is about time that we all recognised that all attempts at detente have favoured the Russians. Their superiority is maintained and even increased, and they are allowed, for example, a larger number of missiles to compensate for the multi-warhead capability of those in use with the West — yet, modernisation of Soviet forces with multi-warhead missiles on a missile-for-missile basis will give the USSR still greater power. Soon, a conference on European Security will be used as an attempt to confirm Soviet domination of ,Eastern Europe.
I also note that Commander Young has ignored the points made in Morris Gershlick's excellent letter.
David W. Wragg Beacon Hill, Hindhead, Surrey
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