DEFENCE OF EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27040, 15 May 1953, Page 11

DEFENCE OF EUROPE

‘Security Sought For .50 Years’

VIEWS OF LORD MONTGOMERY (NXP.A.—Jtesdw— Copyright) «„ . K LONDON, May 13. Field-MarShal Lord Montgomery, Deputy-Supreme Allied Commander m Europe, today called for a European defence plan to give security for 50 years or more. He told a luncheon of the International Press Institute that the pretent East-West contest was fundamentally a struggle for the soul of Germany. He said the/ heart of the matter was to be found in Germany, in spite of the grave troubles in the Far Rast. He did not consider that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation problem had in any way changed because of recent utterances regarding Soviet policy. “In my view recent events indicate a change of tactics rather than of policy, and must be treated as such until events prove otherwise. There I? us L. be no relaxation on the part of the West We cannot afford to relax the efforts we are making to build up defences in accordance with the shortterm aim of N.A.T.0., but while proceeding with the short-term aim nations must also build on a long-term basis.” “Problems Not Insoluble” He would never agree that the problems facing the West today were insoluble. They had been brought upon us by human frailties and errors, and therefore could be put right by human endeavour. “The fate of hundreds of millions of: people is at stake. Let us therefore never cease our endeavours on their behalf,” he said, ■ Lord Montgomery said there must be unify and an agreed political aim by the western allies on a global basis. There must be agreement about <the: future of Germany. He would like to see Western Germany brought into N.A.T.O. as soon as possible. There could be no lasting peace in the world if the present condition of Germany was permanent Lord Montgomery said the East had three assets which gave it an enormous advantage over the West: From a central position the East could concentrate at will, and bring pressure to bear in a cold war anywhere it liked on a European and Asiatic front from Norway to Korea. . It could increase many hours in any industry as desired without any immediate repercussions. In a mass crisis the East plaeed the supreme power in the hands of , one body. “The West has no such advantages. The West can offset these Eastern advantages only by true unify and unselfish solidarity, both of which are impossible without some small sacrifice of sovereignty for the common §ood. Up to date the West has found te difficulties of achieving unify and solidarity very great sometimes almost too great because the willingness to make sacrifices has often been absent. "Western disunity began to appear in 1945 when the West split Western Germany Into three zones. This is exactly what the Bast wanted. It should never have occurred.” He said the Allies should have governed Western Germany as one entity under one commander. “That one commander should have been General Eisenhower. The ‘Eisenhower touch' was needed in Europe in the first stages of peace. It was not there, and consequently the Allies began to drift slowly towards disunity. At the same time, the West demobilised too quickly.”