Evening star., 1953-12-05
New Effort Expected
To Place Germans
In European Army
By Gornett D. Horner
Stor Sioff Correspondent

ttStuCt
Stor Stoff Correspondent
BERMUDA, Dec. 5.-The Big
Three conference here may be
the prelude to a new start on
trying to solve one of the major
problems confronting the West
ern allies: How to add German
manpower to Free Europe's de-
fenSes.
The need for a new start is
being urged by some allied diplo-
mats on the ground that enough
time has been wasted in try
ing to put across the three-year-
old project for integrating Ger
man forces into European army.
Their argument may be sup
ported by Lord Ismay, secretary
general of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, who was
due here late today as an OBJ
server at the talks among Pres
ident Eisenhower, British Prime
Minister Churchill and French
Premier Laniel.
May Advise German Arming.
He is understood to be pre-
pared to advise the Big Three |
that arming of German soldiers
is necessary to make the NATO !
defense system strong enough to |
effectively resist a possible Soviet !
attack, regardless of whether the
European army project mate
rializes.
Actually this has been the sit
uation for more than three years.
The Communist attack in Korea
three years ago last June con-
vinced allied defense planners
the Soviet was willing to risk
general war. This conviction led |
to the decision that Western Eu-
ropean defenSes must be built
up beyond previous calculations.
And they faced the fact that the
needed strength could not be
achieved without arming Ger
many.
France went along with that
basic decision at Big Three for
eign ministers and NATO meet
ingS in New York in September, !
1850, but insisted a formula must
be found to avoid recreating a
German national army. Then !
the French came up with the
formula embodied in the Euro
pean Defense Community treaty
to create a SiX-nation supra
national army into which Ger !
man forces would be integrated. |
Little Hope for French Action.
But France has stalled on rat
flying the EDO treaty and now,
although none will admit this
publicly, few allied diplomats see
much hope for favorable French .
action within any reasonable |
time. French spokesmen here
admit it would be a touch-and-
go matter if the EDO treaty were
brought to a vote in Paris today.
They think the chances would be
improved if the United States
and Britain would guarantee to
maintain at least their present
troop strength in Europe to coun-
ter fears in France that Ger
many soon would dominate edo.
But they realize it. is constitu-
tionally and politically impossible
for Gen. Eisenhower and Mr.
Churchill to give as precise guar
antees as they want.
Politics CompIicate Picture.
Complicating the picture in
France is a political situation
in which, while a majority of .
the members of the National
Assembly might favor EDO, do
meStic differences make it al
most impossible to get them to-
gether on a vote for it. And !
no one yet has come up with
an alternative method for arm
ing German soldiers that would
be acceptable to France.
One possibility talked about
privately is to bring Germany
into NATO as a full-tiedged
member. But that would in
volve creating a German ma
tional army and involve an
almost certain veto by France.
No one expects the Big Three
conference here to produce an
answer to the problem. There
probably will be renewed Off
cial expressions of faith in
EDO. avoiding mention of even
the possibility of having to seek
an alternative. but behind the
scenes, the pressure is increas-
ing to seek new solution.