International records / Foreign Relations of the United States

255. Memorandum of Conversation

g large forces in the Malaysia area. He pointed out that until quite recently the British had a relatively higher percentage of their forces deployed in the Far East than the US did. He indicated that the British see many other potential commitments-Nigeria, for example. From his viewpoint as Minister of Defense, Mr. Healey considered that this scattering of forces in penny packets all over the world (the stage army) had had two disagreeable consequences: (1) People in the military forces are badly overworked, and recruitment is becoming a problem; and (2) all British troops are continuously c…