Thoughts & Actions

On the sixth anniversary of the liberation of Paris last week, the air over the French capital was filled with the whoosh of jet fighters. At an airfield, loudspeakers barked out flight orders in a mixture of English and French: "Castor Bleu, scramble . . . Cobra Jaune, en readiness dans quatre minutes" For three days, 450 planes of the Dutch, Belgian, British and French air forces, supplemented by U.S. B-29s, carried out Western Union's first air maneuvers. Exulted a French colonel: "Today there is actually a European air force . . . Maybe we're just a little ahead of the politicians." .

But there was still no joint European air force--only occasional joint maneuvers. Western Europe's military men could not get any farther than Western Europe's politicians were willing to go. Last week, Winston Churchill reminded his colleagues that they had not gone very far.

Responsible & Wrong. In the tones of a tired Cassandra, Churchill said: "The supreme peril is in Europe. We must try to close the hideous gap on the European front."

Churchill recalled that one of his earlier suggestions for strengthening the defenses of Western Europe had been dismissed as "irresponsible" by Prime Minister Clement Attlee. Said Churchill sardonically, "Perhaps it is better to-be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong." Under Attlee's Labor government, charged Churchill, Britain's defense policy had been characterized mainly by "disconnection of thought and action."

Churchill's salvo at Britain's Socialists would find other targets. While the Tory leader spoke, the North Atlantic Treaty's Council of Deputies was meeting in London's Lancaster House to see how the individual defense programs of North Atlantic pact nations jibed with the overall requirements of Western European defense. The deputies realized that, even on paper, the funds, industrial production and manpower which the North Atlantic powers were prepared to contribute did not add up to the minimum requirements for Western defenses (TIME, Aug. 14).

The British declared firmly that even their present inadequate proposals could be carried out only with more U.S. dollar contributions. The French delegation complained that France had not yet received a full measure of MAP aid promised her by the U.S., and that she was not sufficiently equipped to justify further expansion of her armed forces. Said one French expert: "It's not logical to expect us to make a bigger plan when we haven't yet got the material we need for our present one . . ." The French also wanted the U.S. and Britain to send more troops to the Continent; that demand was echoed by the Germans (see below).

Regrettable & Inevitable. All these arguments sounded eminently reasonable. They were, however, basically wrong--or at least unrealistic. The chairman of the Council of Deputies, the U.S.'s affable

Charles M. Spofford, a former New York lawyer, listened to all arguments and said little. But the U.S. position was pretty well known by last week. It runs something like this:

The Europeans themselves have most to gain by defending themselves. They must do more than they have been doing so far. This is not only a matter of producing more weapons and training more men, but of organizing what is available more efficiently. The U.S. in, its turn will continue to foot a large chunk of Western Europe's defense bill. But it cannot now send more men to Europe.

It was perhaps regrettable that the U.S. had to give such an answer to Western Europe. But the state of unpreparedness in which the U.S. Government faced urgent needs in Korea and elsewhere in Asia made it the only possible answer to give. --

Western defense, still sadly lacking in guns and troops, is rich in executive agencies and consultative organizations:

The North Atlantic Council, made up of the Foreign Ministers of the twelve North Atlantic Treaty countries. The council talks of meshing the defense efforts of member nations, has succeeded in setting up eleven major subsidiary groups and committees.

The North Atlantic Council of Deputies, composed of assistants to the Foreign Ministers. Designed as a permanent executive for the North Atlantic powers, the Council of Deputies keeps on talking when the Foreign Ministers aren't in session.

Western Union, comprising the five Brussels Treaty powers--the United Kingdom, France and the Benelux nations. The Permanent Defense Organization of Western Union (Uniforce) at Fontainebleau theoretically commands a united Western European army (Uniter), an air force (Uniair) and a navy (Unimer). Actually, the forces are united only on paper.

The Council of Europe, representing through its Committee of Foreign Ministers and Consultative Assembly most of the free nations of Europe. The council's participation in Western defense is limited to the framing of resolutions, which are binding on no one.

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