FRENCH PLEA TO N.A.T.O.

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27224, 16 December 1953, Page 11

FRENCH PLEA TO N.A.T.O.

“More Dynamic Policy”

(Rec. 8 p.m.) PARIS, December 14. An appeal for a “more dynamic” Policy for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was made bv the French Foreign Minister (Mr Georges Bidault) Y£ en x- he °P ened the 14-nation North Atlantic Council session in Paris today.

Mr Bidault, chairman of the counsPeaking to an audience of 40 Foreign, Defence and Finance Ministers assembled for the three-day conference.

The ministers met round a huge green baize table in the N.A.T.O. headquarters in the prefabricated Palais de Chailot.

Mr Bidault, who was making the only public address before the coun- ; cil closes its doors for the rest of the session, said the defence of peace and freedom, for which the Atlantic Pact was set up, demanded more than co-operation and mutual guarantees. He warned against any attitude which would result in two worlds facing each other frozen in hostile expectancy, and which would lead in the long run to antagonism and a final deadlock. “A defence policy includes positive and determined initiatives for peace,” he said. Mr Bidault said the United States. Britain and France would enter the Foreign Ministers’ talks with Russia in Berlin “with confidence in their cause.” Referring to President Eisenhower’s proposals for a world atomic pool, Mr Bidault said: “International acceptance of the proposals would establish co-operation and even an association in a field in which lie the greatest prospects for progress, but also the most powerful means of

annihilation.” The Atlantic Pact would never be an alternative to the United Nations, nor should N.A.T.O. and the sixnation European community conflict. “The organisation of Europe is a fundamental issue at this time of history and for our generation, but the European Defence Organisation is inconceivable outside the Atlantic alliance. The development of N.A.T.O. is a condition for the establishment of the European organisation. We must, therefore, find means of coordinating and balancing our exertions.” Mr Bidault added: “If we succeed in finding such a balance between the European organisation and the Atlantic alliance, we will be very near to reaching it at the same time within the European organisations themselves. Europe needs a counterweight and guarantors at least until the reconciliation, to which we have dedicated our lives, is firmly established.”

Defence, economy and progress demanded broader groupings, but if this meant substituting national isolation for European solitude, then the future would be so risky many would be tempted to seek shelter in the framework of the past, Mr Bidault said.