Evening star., 1954-08-22


Treaty Organization and under its
supreme command. NATO's other
members are the United States.
Canada, Great Britain, Norway.
Denmark, Iceland, Portugal. Greece
and Turkey.
French Notifications
Early last week news of M.
Mendes-France's proposed drastic
changes in edo leaked to the world
through discontented members Of
his cabinet:
o, All "supranational" clauses of
the treaty should be kept on ice for
eight years. Each nation would
retain q veto on major issues.
o Integration of the six nations
armed forces would be limited to
those operating on German soil.
Q No German units would be per-
mitted in France.
. Power of the EDO court of justice
would be modified.
Q French military customs and ira
ditions would be preserved by chang
ing EDO provisions on officers and
other ranks.
Q The fixed 50-year duration of the
edo treaty would be abandoned. so
that if Germany were to be re-
unified, or If the United States
and/or Great Britain withdraw their
forces from Europe, the treaty could
be denounced.
NJ Mendes-France came to Brus-
sells insisting that he would have to
get a whole Enthusiastically all
the changes he proposed-or EDO
, was doomed to failure in the Ma
tional Assembly He set himself up
as the sole judge of his own AS
Sembly's attitude.
A Chonges
The five other foreign ministers
threw. up their hands. The Ger
mans calculated that the Mendes-
France proposals would require re.
ratification of A changes in the
EDO treaty as the Bundestag and
Bundesrat had originally approved
1t. Some 20 of them. it was said,
would require two-thirdS votes.
The five nations agreed unani-
mously on three basic points from
which they could not retreat:
Q There must be no second ratifi-
cation process. Four parliamentS
have already passed the edo treaty
in its present form. Italy and
France are the. only ones which
have not. Re-ratification probably
would delay Germany's unity with
the West even longer than the Com
munists could hope.
o No more discrimination against
West Germany than already pro-
vided for can now be tolerated.
o The European unity idea must
not be crippled.
M. France insisted his
changes need not be sent back to
the various parliaments, and as
sured the conferees that he too IA
vored eventual unif1cation of Eu-
rope. Unfortunately, the other five
countries could not reconcile M.
Mendes-F Frances good intentions
with his radical notifications. They
told him so frankly.
Then came the unkindest cut Of
all from Paris. Robert Schuman,
ex-foreign minister who had been
one of the principal architects Of
EDO, disputed the Mendes-France
Judgment of National Assembly
sentiment. He said the new mod
ifications would lessen the already
slim chances for EDO passage, not
improve them.
Spook Plan
Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian For
eign Minister, proposed face-sav-
ing compromise. Actually, it was
no compromise at all. M. Mendes-
France would do all the face-saving.
1t was proposed that the new
French notifications be sorted into
three categories: Those requiring re-
ratification, those requiring long ne
gotiations on the diplomatic level.
and those which could be accepted
or rejected at last weeks meeting.
Changes needing re-ratif1cation
would be put on shelf.
At first M. Mendes-France
spurned the compromise" But on
Friday he relented. He accepted
the Spaak compromise as a basis
for discussion. He thus apparently
abandoned hope of taking much
new back to Paris for the National
Assembly debate on EDO, which is
to open next Saturday.
Possible PulI-Out?
The United States and Great
Britain, not members of EDO, have
no direct say in the problem. But
they openly expressed their chagrin
at the Mendes-France plan. Un-
officially it has been whispered that
the two countries might be obliged
to reconsider their pledges to keep
troops on the continent II France
changes the conditions under which
it was agreed to station forces there.
Britain and the United States
have privately decided - in the
Eisenhower Churchill talks here last
Fourth of July week end-that West
Germany should be given its COM
plete sovereignty this fall If EDO
has not been ratified by then.
Bonn's sovereignty, of course. was
made contingent on approval of the
EDO treaty when the two pacts were
signed two and half years ago.
Brussels negotiations continued
yesterday, but with no spirit Of
optimism. Odds were that France.
one way or another, would reject
EDO.
What Next?
That would not mean the last
chance for linking West Germany
with. the free world had passed, or
that European unif1cation was a
dead hope. But it would mean that