bombers racing to Kuwait . more troops ready to go . news of the world diplomatic correspondent . more British troops , aircraft and warships are racing to Kuwait this morning from Germany , Cyprus , Kenya and even the far east . the British military authorities describe the operation as a very rapid build-up . in New York the security council is meeting at 11 a.m today at the special request of both Britain and Kuwait . and in Washington the state department of the United States has endorsed Britain &apos;s show of force , expressing the hope that it will help to assure the preservation of peace . in London yesterday , as the first British troops and aircraft went in and royal navy warships circled in the off-shore gulf heat-haze Mr Macmillan called an emergency meeting of cabinet Ministers and service chiefs . Mr Hugh Gaitskell , leader of the opposition , went to Admiralty House to hear the inside story of the situation from the Premier . then last night at Bowood , Calne , Wilts , the Premier , speaking to the Wessex area conservative rally , explained what the government is doing about the threat by Premier Kassem of Iraq to annexe Kuwait - and why . I still trust that threats against Kuwait are no more than words and that the government of Iraq will refrain from any aggressive action , he said . but he added , we must take no risk and in view of the language that is being used and the indications of a military build-up which may threaten Kuwait , we have thought it right to respond to the urgent and formal request which the ruler has made to us that we should give him some protectionary strength . tanks . Mr Gaitskell , speaking at Bristol , said he could not see how Britain could have refused to help Kuwait . but our troops should not stay there a day longer than necessary . the united nations should be asked to put in a force to replace them as soon as possible . the first British troops in , about 600 royal marines of 42 commando and 150 men of the third dragoon guards with 14 Centurion tanks , went ashore at Kuwait in a shade temperature of 120 degrees . the marines had come racing up the searingly hot Persian Gulf in the royal navy carrier Bulwark , which set out from Karachi on Thursday . and the dragoon guards were put ashore from the tank landing ship Striker , which arrived with an amphibious warfare squadron . almost simultaneously a squadron of R.A.F Hawker Hunter jet fighters came screaming in for a landing . they are believed to have flown from Kenya . off-shore , meanwhile , the British frigate Loch Alvie and the vessels of the amphibious warfare squadron circled before anchoring , apparently just outside the three-mile limit . alerted . soon afterwards it was announced in Kuwait that an unknown number of Saudi Arabian troops had also arrived . and that eight R.A.F Canberra jet bombers from Germany had reached the Persian Gulf air base at Sharjah . two squadrons of Canberra bombers from Cyprus were reported to have arrived at Aden on their way to Kuwait . men of the Devonshire and Dorset regiments and the 2nd battalion of the parachute regiment in Cyprus were said to have been alerted for a move . and from Kenya there were reports that the men of the Coldstream guards and King &apos;s regiment were soon ready to be airlifted north as soon as aircraft became available . in Kuwait plans were being made to evacuate the 3,000 or so Britons who live there . but it was stated officially that there are no thoughts of evacuation unless the situation deteriorates seriously . and the Kuwait supreme council announced that the frontier with Iraq had been closed . terms before we join common market . Britain has made it quite clear that she must make conditions before joining the common market in its present form , said Mr R A Butler yesterday . we are determined to safeguard the interests of our farmers , our commonwealth partners and our friends in the European free trade association , he told conservatives at Harrogate . Mr Butler , who was speaking as Chairman of the conservative party , said no decision had yet been reached even to enter into formal negotiations for joining . if we reached some agreement there would have to be major changes , he said . he warned that industry would have to face more competition from European goods . a paper published yesterday by the non-party P.E.P ( political and economic planning ) says most British farmers will not be adversely affected if Britain joins the market . some farmers might gain . but horticulturists would have to meet keener competition unless imports were restricted by some other means than tariffs . the national farmers &apos; union said the P.E.P study did not show that farmers would be as well-off on a long-term basis under common market terms . now Kruschev hots up the Berlin crisis . from A Noyes Thomas . west Berlin , Saturday . Mr Kruschev today made two ominous moves - and another threatening statement - on the heightening German crisis . he suspended all planned reductions in Soviet armed forces . he stepped-up Soviet military expenditure by more than 30 per cent . and he said : - we shall sign a peace treaty with East Germany and order our armed forces to administer a worthy rebuff to any aggressor if he raises his hand against the Soviet Union or our friends . it is best for those who think of war not to imagine that distance will save them &amp;hellip; . we have everything at our disposal to solve successfully the responsible tasks facing us . the speech , broadcast by Moscow radio , coincided with a meeting on the Berlin and German problem between President Kennedy and his top advisers . razor edge . and while the Soviet leader was talking the Nato council in Paris received from Washington the text of a note which the United States government will shortly deliver to the Kremlin . the contents of the note , which is in reply to one handed to President Kennedy in Vienna on June 4 , are not known . but it is believed to reject Mr Kruschev &apos;s demands . as the news pours in from around the world , beleagured Berlin this weekend is a city on a razor &apos;s edge . until 24 hours or so ago west Berliners , who have been building up vast stocks of food against the possibility of another siege of their city , believed the west was determined to stand fast in the face of all communist threats . but then from Washington came seemingly authoritative reports that the Americans might not be prepared to risk war on these issues after all . from this distance it appears that the United States government is ready to accept East German control of the west &apos;s tenuous life-lines through the communist zone to the isolated city . I have just had a long talk with the man at the centre of the crisis , Herr Willy Brandt , Mayor of west Berlin and a strong candidate for the chancellorship of western Germany . Kruschev , he believes , has become a prisoner of his own words . after years of bluffing over East Germany and west Berlin the Soviet leader is faced at last with the necessity of doing something about it , whether he likes it or not . one reason : to satisfy the impatient leaders of impoverished , struggling East Germany who , says Herr Brandt , in many respects tend to be more Russian than the Russians . Herr Brandt has no doubt whatsoever that Mr Kruschev really does intend this time to make a separate peace treaty with East Germany . privately , though , Herr Brandt is not at all convinced that the Russians see eye to eye with the East Germans over a change in the status of west Berlin . this in spite of the fact that Soviet propaganda frequently refers to the present set-up as a thorn in the flesh , a bone in the throat and a base for hostile , provocative activity . look at it this way , says the young handsome mayor . every week between 4,000 and 5,000 East Germans escape into West Germany , many of them through west Berlin . every day crowds of east Berliners come into west Berlin to goggle at the prosperity here before returning to their own drab side of the city where , 16 years after the war , meat and butter are still rationed . all this is galling to the East German authorities , but the Russians , I suspect , see west Berlin as a safety valve . it calms the feelings of many in East Germany to know that their symbol of freedom is here , close by ; to know that there is a way out . remove that safety valve and things might begin to happen in East Germany . not a revolution , maybe . but sabotage , more go-slow campaigns , all kinds of passive resistance . Herr Brandt believes that until now the Russians have actually vetoed East German plans to stop the flow of refugees . today Gerhard Eiseler , the East German propaganda chief , made a speech hinting at a new war of nerves against west Berlin . says Herr Brandt : if it comes it may be far less dramatic , though no less dangerous , than most people expect . he can not see it taking as blunt a turn as a new blockade on the scale of the last one . come on Britain ! by the Chancellor . we &apos;ve got to pull up our socks . by our political correspondent . grim-faced and speaking with quiet emphasis , Mr Selwyn Lloyd gave the country a tough pep talk yesterday . come on , Britain , we &apos;ve got to pull up our socks - that was the burden of his fighting speech in which he announced that he will tell the House of Commons on Tuesday week the means he proposes to take to get Britain out of the red . he added that on this little budget day he will recommend such action as I think necessary , however unpopular or unexpected . I am not afraid , he said , to ask the British people to bear the necessary burdens or accept the necessary disciplines designed to secure not just the survival but also the maintenance of our position as an up-to-date , progressive , dynamic influence on the world . today the Chancellor will go to Chequers to join a cabinet house-party where his new measures to deal with Britain &apos;s financial crisis will be on the agenda . here are other points from his speech yesterday , delivered at a conservative fete at Hawarden , Flintshire . the trade balance at the present time , in spite of better figures announced yesterday is unsatisfactory . in a tough competitive world , we as a nation are not doing well enough . that is not a new discovery . I have warned the country again and again of this since I became Chancellor . the task . the time is long past when as individuals , or as a nation we can expect to live beyond our means . in the long run , as individuals , we can not take out in real income more than we contribute in production or services . we can not achieve stability , let alone speed up our economic growth , until we have made an improvement in our export performance far beyond anything we have yet achieved . we can not hope to do this without a tougher and more competitive spirit in industry , a far more critical attitude towards costs , whatever their origin , a relentless rooting-out of all inefficiency , restrictiveness and waste , whether it be of capital resources or of labour . we can not afford the restrictive practices , whether of management or labour , that are far too readily accepted now . we can not afford the easy complacency with which increases in costs derived from these and similar inefficiencies are added to prices in the confidence that the customer will pay . it is not just a matter of working a good deal harder before we really earn the incomes that are paid . harder work is needed ; but above all we need more drive and better direction , more efficiency and economy in our effort . overdrawn . and an inner conviction that these things really matter - and indeed are essential if we are not to slip back into becoming a second-rate economy with declining standards of living . we can not reward ourselves in advance of actual achievement by increased money incomes , whether in the form of dividends , profits or wages . 