The Paper Cutters

The European Army, still a paper plan, was in serious danger last week from the snipping scissors of Western Europe's diplomats and politicians.

As often before, the seat of trouble lay in France's National Assembly, where Premier Rene Mayer faced two reservations to the European Defense Community plan. French Socialists, whose support Mayer must have, fear to stand at the side of Germany in the European Army unless Britain stands at the other, i.e., by also becoming a member of EDC; French nationalists, whose support of the Mayer government is equally vital, accept the military wisdom of German rearmament, but reject any arrangement that will tie the bulk of the French army to the troops of other nations.

With pastepot and pencil. Rene Mayer tried to patch the twain. He and Foreign Minister Georges Bidault hurried across the Channel to see what the British could offer to placate the German-wary French Socialists. Britain stuck to its decision to stay out of EDC, but was willing to promise its "continued full support" to the European Army. And Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden announced that when he visits Washington next week, he will ask the U.S. to join Britain in a pledge extending NATO's 20-year guarantees (which include the stationing of their troops on the Continent) through the 50-year term of EDC.

Minor Alterations. To woo the nationalists, who insist that France must keep full control over its army, Mayer presented the five other EDC partners (West Germany, Italy and Benelux) with nine last-minute protocols, each one subtly designed to change the sense and substance of EDC in France's favor. If accepted, the most important changes would:

P:Permit France--but not Germany--to withdraw its troops from EDC for use overseas (just like the British and Americans, said the French cheerfully, though neither Britain nor the U.S. are members of EDC).

P:Allow concessions to EDC's "non-German troops stationed in Germany." The Germans, who are supposed to get their sovereignty back when EDC is ratified, promptly howled that this meant "special occupation privileges" for foreigners.

P:Allow the French officers corps (but not the officers of other EDC partners) to be rotated at will between the French "national army" (e.g., in Indo-China) and the French contingent to the international European Army.

To the nationalists in the Assembly, Mayer stoutly maintained that his nine protocols change the treaty in important respects, but they guarantee the "unity and integrity of the French army." To other EDC members, he described them as "minor alterations."

A Tiny Sin. When the protocols arrived at Bonn, West Germany Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was abed with the flu, but he bestirred himself long enough to flash an S O S to Washington. If Paris insisted on the changes, he warned, EDC may be delayed so long that its chances of approval in West Germany--now fairly certain--will be wiped away in this June's national elections.

The EDC countries told their diplomats in Paris to discuss Mayer's changes. The brow-smoothing job went to Herve Alphand, France's dapper representative on the NATO Council, who is sometimes called the Silver Fox. The protocols, explained Alphand, are not the last word and can be revised to suit the Germans or any other objectors. They do not "sin" against the EDC's original intent, said he. Perhaps there were no cardinal sins, Italy's Ivan Matteo Lombardo twitted him, but here & there one finds "un petit peche" --a tiny sin.

At any rate, the Silver Fox's bland assurances were not enough for Konrad Adenauer, who is something of a fox himself. Rising from a sickbed at week's end for a full-dress EDC conference with other European ministers in Rome, he gave a one-word answer to France's amendments: "Nein." EDC, said Adenauer, must be ratified as it stands, or there will be no European Army.

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