Evening star., 1953-12-04
The Bermuda Meetino

AS summed up at his news conference the
other day, the main objective of President
EiSenhoWers journey to Bermuda is to enable
him to discuss with British Prime Minister Sir
Winston Churchill and French Premier Joseph
Laniel the whole field of international prob
lens in the interest of Western unity.
In that sense, regardless of what it may
achieve or fail to achieve, the meeting is
unquestionably timely one. For the West at
the moment, as for some weeks past, is the tar
get of fairly obvious Soviet dge-driving
campaign-a campaign calculated to promote
inter-allied dScord by exploiting such things
as French fears of a reSurgent Germany and by
seeking to aggravate the differences of view
point existing between France, Britain and the
United States on number of great issues
affecting Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
The long-range purpose of all this, of
course is to Shatter enterprises like the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization and the projected
European Defense Community in order to divide
and weaken the free nations to point where
they would be acutely vulnerable to subversion
and conquest on a one-at-a-time basis Accord
ingy, as the President has suggested, few
things could be more important at the present
stage than that the Bermuda talks should be
harmonious and productive enough to make
clear to the world that the Western Big Three
see eye to eye on the essentials of every major
world problem and that they cannot be beguiled
from their unity in that respect, or frightened
out of it, by Establishments or threats from the
Kremlin.
To that end, together with their foreign
ministers, Mr.. Laniel Sir Winston and the Pres
ident must strive during the next few days to
reconcile certain policy Emergencies and ham,
mer out strong common approach to for
midable array of complex issues. These include,
Frn.1 4Ia4 a~10
Egyptian deadlock the stalemated negotiations
for Korean political conference; recent land
Suspect hints of a Communist desire for a
truce in Indo-China; the problem of how best
to handle the Kremlin's belated acceptance of
the Western proposal for Big Four conference
on Germany and Austria; and the question OF
speeding up Frances long delayed ratification
of the EDO treaty to create six-nation Euro
pean army, including West German divisions
All these issues are important but the last
two probably are the most pressing. The Krem-
Inns note agreeing to four power foreign min
listers meeting requires an early answer, and
the Bermuda conferees, in drafting that answer,
will have to concert their views in a way
designed to guarantee that they will not fall
into propaganda trap when and if the meet
ing is held. As for the EDO treaty, the ratif-
cation question is complicated by French worry
over a possible revival of German militariSm
and by French desire for special guarantees
from Britain and the United States. Neverthe-
less though it is a difficult problem, solution
to it is Sorely needed, and there will be wide
spread disappointment if the Eisenhower
Churchill-Laniel get-together fails to work out
one
1t would be a mistake, however, to expect
spectacular results from this meeting. Actually
even if it falls short of ending French hesitancy
on the EDO or fails to settle all inter-allied
differences, it still can accomplish great deal
in terms of countering the Kremlin's effort to