MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Foot-and-Mouth forces UK Commandos to train in United States

British Royal Marines are being forced to utilise United States training areas because their own traditional training grounds on Dartmoor , Southern England, have been closed by restrictions to combat the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic among farm animals.

It is reported to be costing the British Government 1.8 million pounds (2.7 million dollars) to pay for 750 British trainee commandos to complete endurance tests at Fort AP Hill in Virginia, east of the Mississippi River, a terrain of thick forest with mild and humid weather, very different from Dartmoor's colder moor land, bogs and streams.

The marines are to stay in Virginia until mid-June when it will be impossible to continue training because the weather will be oppressively hot.

If foot- and-mouth disease is still rampant then, the Ministry of Defence will be looking for alternative training areas.

The Royal Marines have a historic links with the Falkland Islands and formed a major part of the Task Force which defeated the Argentine occupation forces in 1982.

Harold Briley, London