Serious Joke

"Two years ago," goes a story which Western diplomats tell on themselves, "nothing stood between the Russians and the Channel. Now they would have to struggle past committee after committee."

In a spacious modern school in Lisbon, cleared of students for the occasion, the diplomatic, military and economic brains of the North Atlantic Alliance gathered this week with their full panoply of committees, subcommittees and commissions. One of their big objectives was to take the sting out of that joke.

NATO's complex cumbersomeness is chiefly on the political and economic side. On the military side, General Dwight Eisenhower's SHAPE command has settled into a tight, efficient routine. At Lisbon, NATO's chiefs (numbering about 30 ministers) hoped to fashion a close-knit governing board of twelve full-time members with enough power and privacy to make big political and economic decisions, the way Eisenhower's SHAPE can make military ones.

Prospects before the Lisbon meeting:

Arms. Good but not good enough. A year ago, when Ike took over, he had eleven available divisions, only one of them combat ready. Now he has 30, of which 20 are combat ready. The other ten are in "good position" in southern France and northern Italy. To support the land forces, there are 14 tactical air wings. SHAPE figures itself about 10% shy of its present goals. The big military question at Lisbon is German rearmament: the conflict between Germany's price for rearming and France's conditions for letting Germany rearm (see FOREIGN NEWS). Technically, Lisbon will be discussing the mechanics of linking NATO with the European Army once an army is formed, but the current troubles over forming it overshadow that.

Members. At Lisbon, Greece and Turkey will be voted into NATO, expanding the alliance to 14 countries and stretching its reach from Iceland to the Dardanelles.

Money. The big question is who pays, and how much. Lisbon will hear a report from NATO's Three Wise Men--W. Averell Harriman of the U.S., Jean Monnet of France, Sir Edwin Plowden of Britain--who have been working secretly and late on the figures. Though most NATO partners fear they can no longer carry the defense load without serious inflationary crises at home, the Wise Men have urged Belgium and Canada to ante up more. They asked West Germany to contribute 13 billion marks; Germany said it could afford only 10; they compromised at 11 billion (in dollars, 2.6 billion).

Mood. A year ago, NATO had to fight the despair that asked "What's the use?" Now that NATO's rearming has reduced this defeatism, it must fight a complacency: "What's the point of doing more?"

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