Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-09-26

suggests that safeguards against
German rearmament can be handled
by the NATO Council, perhaps by a
system of ornaments inspection.
The Eden vehicle for bringing
Germany into the Atlantic commu-
nifty is the Brussels pact-now FIVE
power alliance including France.
Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands
and Luxembourg. He wants to ex-
pand the organization to include
West Germany and Italy. The
Brussels group is already linked to
NATO and would be a neat device
for attaching Germany to the larger
group without disturbing the other
NATO powers commitments unduly
or involving them in the prolonged
negotiations. But the Brussels pact
will have to have its anti-German
features removed first.
Last Monday, M. Mendes-F France
outlined his alternative before the
European Consultative Assembly at
Strasbourg. He clearly liked Mr..
Eden's concessions on supernatural
powers and Britain's implied inten-
ton to strengthen it's commitment
on the continent. But he indicated
France Is not ready to take West
Germany into NATO Immediately,
or to grant her complete sovereignty.
Mendes Frances Stond
M. Mendes-France's position is
roughly this:
What France will do to bring
Germany into the European COM
munity is what the French National
Assembly will do. The National AS
sembly will not take West Germany
into NATO or give her complete
sovereignty on no-questions- asked
basis. It will want to see-in black
and Whitehall sorts of safeguards.
These, of course, will take time to
write. But M. Mendes-F France is
determined not to do what his pre-
decessors did-prou1ise his allies
more than his Parliament will de-
liver.
There is another reason, Just as
important. why M. Mendes-France
will not go beyond what he thinks
the National Assembly will accept:
He wants to stay in power. The
sorry parade of premiers that has
marched across the stage of the
Fourth Republic in the last nine
years has left unattended Frances
primary problem. her outmoded
economy. M. Mendes-F France, an
CT Arcf
to revive that economy. His plan
will take not months but years. The
National Assembly, he knows, will
scuttle him-and his economic plans
If he presses for German policy
softer than it wants. He does not
propose to give the National AS
sembly that chance.
Bleak Prospects
Prospects for happy compromise
emerging from London are not
considered good. Contrary to some
wishful thinking. NJ. Mendes-France
is not in a position to retreat from
his bargaining point. No one who
watched the Chamber of Deputies
torpedo EDO could realistically differ
very much with him on the practical
aspects of his reflection of the
French Parliament's attitude toward
German renascence.
On the other hand, West Ger
many's Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
thinks his country has done enough
penance since 1945. He wants
Britain and the United States to
follow through now on their promise
last July to give the Federal Repub-
lie its sovereignty If EDO died. He
also wants the same two countries
to put enough pressure on France
: to get West Germany into NATC
as an equal partner.
If either one of these things i.
denied him. Herr Adenauer will bt
in bad political trouble. Howls from
the Bundestag are already beins
heard. The crescendo will grow il
he comes back from London empty.
handed.
In the last 10 days the United
States has made it perfectly cleal
to the world that this time we art
on Germany's side. When Secretar!
Dulles returned from his Bonn
London reconnaissance a week agt
yesterday. he blessed West German!
and ignored France. America be.
lieves, he said, that West German
sovereignty and the first steps TO-