Evening star., 1952-05-29
The Promise of the EDO

Apart from its military meaning. the six
nation treaty on the European Defense Commu-
nifty has revolutionary political and economic
potentialites whose significance can hardly be
exaggerated. Assuming that it will be ratified by
all the parliaments concerned and that it will
then be converted into an effective operating
reality. 1t may well prove to be-as Secretary
AcheSon has said-"one OF the most important
and most far-reaching events of our lifetime"
Militarily speaking the pact-which comes
within the overall framework Of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization and which is
companion piece to the Anglo-French American
peace contract with the Adenauer government
at Bonn-paves the way for the formation of
supranational army without precedent in mod
ern history. This army, wearing a common uni
form and financed by common budget under
common top direction, will be made up of the
merged forces of the six signatory nations
France, West Germany Italy, Belgium, the
Netherlands and Luxembourg. BY the end of
1854, it is supposed to have in combat readiness
total Of million men Gncluding Western Ger
mans in IL divisions or "groupements') who are
to stand guard, as part of the NATO alliance,
against the threat Of aggression from the Soviet
Union or any other quarter.
In short-range sense, and in terms of the
continental balance of land power vis-a-vis the
Kremlin's armies, it is obvious that such defen-
sive force-once it Is brought into existence
can be powerful and perhaps even decisive
deterrent to the kind of attack that could easily
explode into third world war. Beyond that, as
far as the more distant future is concerned, one
OF its greatest virtues Is that it links the military
Of France with the military of Germany and thus
promises to promote a genuinely lasting peace
between these two ancient enemies-a peace
that could have profoundly beneficial effect
on the whole OF Europe. AS for the possibility Of
signatories unilaterally Withdrawing from the
edo, there are special pledges and guarantees
backed by Britain and the United States-to
reduce that to minimum.
Even more important than all this, however
is the promise that the operation of the EDO
treaty, coupled with that Of the Schuman Plan
for pooling the coal and steel resources Of the
six signatory nations, will speed up progress to-
ward integrating and unifying the free part Of
the continent into political and economic
entity roughly comparable to our own United
States-a single vast producing and marketing
area freed of crippling commercial barriers and
governed as kind of federation. In fact the
treaty's policy-making and administrative ma
chinery-including an executive bureau, an as
sembly and court Of justice-already offers the
institutional groundwork for the development
Of such a federation.
This tremendous promise, Of course, is still
very far from fulnllment The peace contract
and the EDO pact have yet to be ratified, and
after their ratidcation-whic is by no means
assured-their translation into successful action
will take a lot Of fortitude time and hard labor.
Nevertheless, in Mr.. Achesons words, the mere
fact that they have been signed constitutes "the
beginning Of the realization Of an ancient dream
the unity Of the free peoples Of Western Eu-
rope" And If that beginning is exploited to the
full, If it is carried forward to completion it can
result eventually in the richest of blessings for
the entire continent and the world at large.