Search for a Path

"We could start by a solemn pact of nonaggression." Of all the innumerable Communist proposals for settling East-West tensions, few have been more often repeated than this. Yet last week it was no Communist who said it, but a true-blue Tory--Britain's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Said Macmillan in a broadcast to the nation: "It would do no harm. It might do good."

Macmillan coupled his dramatic proposal with many a cautionary clause. He warned against the emotional appeal of a nuclear disarmament pact that might leave the West "virtually defenseless before the greatly superior weight of Russian conventional arms." He pointed out that every government since 1947, both Labor and Tory, had approved the basing of U.S. bombers in the United Kingdom for mutual defense. As to the new plan to install thermonuclear missiles in Britain--"If bases for nuclear rockets are the up-to-date equivalent for bomb-carrying planes, then our whole defense policy, our whole strategy, becomes meaningless unless we have these bases." Said Macmillan: "We have at least gained this--that we have such an even balance of power as makes war almost impossible. Do not let us lose this advantage. Therefore, in the plans proposed...we must see that this balance is preserved."

But the keynote of Macmillan's address to the British people was his avowed intent "to go on seeking for some agreement with the Russians." Said he: "For my part, I don't mind whether we make it through the United Nations or at some smaller meeting...The object would be to clear away the rubble of old controversies and disagreements, perhaps to get the path ready for a meeting of heads of government."

The Foreign Secretary. More than any other man, Harold Macmillan had inspired the NATO summit meeting in Paris--a feat which gave Britons the mildly exhilarating feeling that their counsels were again carrying their old weight in the world's chancelleries. Last week, as he prepared to depart on a five-week tour of Commonwealth nations, Macmillan was hailed expansively by some Tory supporters as "the Foreign Secretary of the West."

Macmillan had spoken in conscious awareness of strong political pressure. There has been mounting nervousness in Britain over the fact that U.S. planes carrying hydrogen bombs fly out of British bases. Such nervousness has prompted widespread demands for new East-West talks. In London, reported the Gallup poll last week, 51% of the population favor an Eisenhower-Khrushchev meeting, only 24% are opposed.

Back to Secrecy. Macmillan was responding not just to domestic pressure but to a mood that had swept a large part of the free world. French Premier Felix Gaillard endorsed the idea. India's Nehru and Pakistan's President Iskander Mirza quickly echoed him. Norway's Premier

Einar Gerhardsen urged new attempts at "realistic discussions" between East and West. Even West Germany's President Theodor Heuss chimed in to plead for a return to "secret diplomacy" along the lines recently advocated by "the cautious and brilliant George Kennan."

Nothing that Harold Macmillan or his colleagues said implied any break or even quarrel with the U.S. This was talk and criticism of the kind that distinguishes true allies from satellites. Beyond domestic political situations it was prompted by a feeling that the West as a unit must re-examine some of its international assumptions in the light of Sputnik.

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