Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-11-10

willing accord on whose fingers
shall be on the different triggers,
These are the themes which will
give a special character" to the
meeting next month of NATO's
Council. The attendance of Presi-
dent Eisenhower and other heads
of governments underlines their
Importance.
Europe is not the world. though
the most direct crunch comes
there between the two world sys-
TENS of power and influence. The
similarity assumed in the Wash
ington declaration between NATO.
the Southeast Asia Organization
and the Baghdad Pact is, at the
best. only partial.
The countries of Western Eu-
rope, living and working just above
the tidewater mark of Russian
conquest and Communist expan-
sion. cluster willingly together for
self defense. In Asia and the
Middle East the campaign is diff
ferent; there the peoples, for the
most part. do not feel themselves,
or wish to be, committed to the
wider contest. Locally, the battle
is not for bases and garrisons but
for minds and markets.
Here it is politics and economics
that must come to the aid of
strategy.
The only answer can be, not de-
fensive, but positive; and the most
calamitous thing that could now
befall the western cause in the un-
committed and developing coun-
tries would be world depression.
The British Role
The British role in the revival
iZing of western defense - and
western diplomacy - should be
neither underestimated nor over
estimated.
Obviously the new model alli-
ance begins with the Anglo Ameri-
can partnership as its core. The
United States cannot go on being
aloof: Britain has had to give up
notions of false independence.
The Americans are reader now to
recognize the British interest in,
say oil-which Britain shares, of
course. with other European coun-
tries; the British are. perforce, less
able now to put on a colonial"
front.
The Washington declaration
should mean that something like
the old companionship may now
be possible. But it is quite clear
that there is not. and cannot be,
anything exclusive now in the re-
lationship. The new Europe, as
well as the Commonwealth, has To
come in to redress and hold the
world balance; and, potentially.
the uncommitted peoples of Asia
and of Africa may weigh decisively
in the scales.
Nobody can say yet whether the
words declared in Washington
will be given meaning by deeds.
All that can be said now is that
a new opportunity has been
opened. In grasping it, there are
two quite simple principles that
spring from the purposes which
are being sought.
These purposes are the pursuit
Of peace and prosperity in what
has been called "a world order
based on voluntary partnership"
The principles are, first, that the
military side of the partnership
shall be essentially and unmis-
takably defense; that the fence Of
western arms shall not be at
tached to a ring of entrenched
positions taken up in the interests
of individual members of the al
lance. any of which might land
the alliance in total, needless war.
Diplomacy, that is. must still be
free to be flexible.
The second principle is that, in
its non-military aspect, the al
lance shall be the opposite Of
defensive, proving the wisdom of
its precepts by the success of its
positive example.
In all this. though Britain can
not expect to return automatically
to the place of most-favored ma
ticn IN the Atlantic alliance, it
can still prove to be the ally with
most to contribute. Not greatness,
but usefulness and the manage
ment of its own resources, will
be the test.