FRANCE’S ROLE IN EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27203, 21 November 1953, Page 7

FRANCE’S ROLE IN EUROPE

De Gaullist Move In Treaty Debate

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, November 19. De Gaullist Deputies in the French National Assembly tonight tabled a motion calling for a solution of the European problem which did not separate France from the rest of the French Union and which included /‘the largest possible number of European States, with Great Britain in the first rank.” The de Gaullist motion was tabled in a long debate, the climax of which will be the passage of a resolution which will define France’s position—without making a specific commitment on timing—on the European Defence Treaty before the Big Three conference opens at Bermuda on December 4. The debate should come to an end late tomorrow, when the Foreign Minister (Mr Bidault) will make a long and detailed plea in favour of ratifying the E.D.C. Treaty.

Voting on the resolutions probably will not come until the early hours of the next morning.

Mr Edouard Daladier, who was Prime Minister of France in 1939, attacked the Bonn Agreements restoring West Germany’s sovereignty which, he said, was more dangerous than the European Army Plan. “As for the European Defence Community, it provides for the rebirth of the German Army having all the characteristics of a national army, the creation of which is already being prepared by German Ministers and generals who are travelling between Bonn and Washington. The de Gaullist motion said the Assembly wanted to preserve the chances of East-West negotiations “so far as may be reasonable and possible.” The motion added that the Assembly expected the position and the instructions of the Government, both at Bermuda and at The Hague conference to be governed by these national imperatives. pissident de Gaullists also tabled a motion opposing the European Army plan calling on the Government to negotiate another solution based on free association.

These motions, together with those tabled by Socialist, Popular Republican and other deputies will be discussed at the end of the debate. Division of Opinion The Assembly was deeply divided on the rearmament of Germany. Those who spoke in favour of it said that German rearmament was inevitable, and the treaty to create a European Army was the only means of regulating it. Others said that in no circumstances must Germany be allowed to rearm, and some maintained that Britain must be brought into the European Army. “Sir ((Winston Churchill tells us with much emotion that France should take the hand of Germany. Yes, but on condition Sir Winston Churchill takes the other hand,” Mr Daladier said. “It is impossible for the Bonn agreements and the European Army Treaty to be imposed by the Western Allies when the fourth big war-time partner, Russia, took a preponderant part in the victory over the Nazis with its 17,000,000 dead and its thousands of towns destroyed.” De Gaullists and Communists and some Radicals and Moderates applauded loudly when Mr Daladier asked: “How do you propose to get this more qr less camouflaged ‘diktat’ accepted? Mark this. The Russian soldier has never trampled on the soil of France since the struggle between the Tsar and Napoleon in 1812. The Germans have invaded our country three times—-in 1870, in 1914 and in 1940.” Call to AU Deputies ’ Mr Daladier called on all Deputies come out in the open and say whether they were for or against the European. Army. “Supporters and opponents must be counted,” he said. “After us it will be for the people of France to speak," he said.

Mr Robert Schuman, the former Foreign Minister, said that ratification of the European Defence Community Treaty would not mean a break in East-West relations. The existence of the Atlantic Pact had not prevented the Berlin block* ade coming to an end. S?. reaffirmed his support for the E.D.C., and said that French and German differences over the Saar question snould not serve as a pretext for indefinitely postponing work on the treaty ratification.