EUROPEAN ARMY PLAN

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26529, 18 September 1951, Page 7

EUROPEAN ARMY PLAN

Advantages Seen By Mr Strachey

LONDON, September 16. The possibility of a reconciliation of Germany with the West, which had never yet been fully accomplished, might well spring from the concept of a European Army including Germany, the Secretary of State for War (Mr John Strachey) said to-night. Addressing his constituents in Dundee, Mr Strachey said he was coming to the conclusion that the French had been right all along in wanting a European Army. The more everyone had considered the idea of a German army, the less they liked it. but Russia kept no less than 25 divisions permanently in East Germany, forcing the West to maintain somewhere near an equal balance. It would be a terrific burden if Germany were never to contribute. Britain’s doubts about a European Army had been largely concerned with feasibility, Mr Strachey said, but it was essential to consider the idea realistically and to face the undoubtedly great practical difficulties involved.

France and Germany, who since 1870 had fought three deadly wars with each other, now wished to pool the whole of the essential parts of their military forces so that they literally could not fight each other. “Strictly Continental” It was not proposed that# there should be either British or American units. It was to be strictly a Continental European Army. “No doubt we cannot commit ourselves on the idea till the military difficulties are settled, but let us never lose sight of the acute problems which the European Army—and as far as I can see it alone—can solve. Such an army would provide means by which German troops could be used for Western Europe’s defence, but from the organisation’s very nature they could not again attack sister States. They could never march against East Germany becuse they could not move independently. "In a word the German troops of the European Army could be used solely for the one, single but vital purpose of defending their own country as an essential part of Western Europe. Let us not forget, whether we like it or not, that the Germans are, and always will be, one of Western Europe’s great races. They committed great crimes against the West’s heritage, but what nation has been guiltless of crimes and follies in our Continent’s history? Hitler was an Austrian, so was Mozart. Goering was a German, so was Beethoven. Western Europe cannot live without the Germans and it cannot live with them either, if they continue to play the same destructive part as they have in the twentieth century.”