CONCERN FELT IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27225, 17 December 1953, Page 11

CONCERN FELT IN BRITAIN

“Solemn Warning To France” LONDON, December 15. British diplomatic quarters today viewed with considerable concern the serious divergences between France and the United States disclosed at a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Council yesterday. Mr Dulles’s statement that failure to ratify the European Army Treaty might bring a reappraisal of United States policy was considered in London as a solemn warning to France, made in the full knowledge of American internal politics. Mr Dulles’s words were taken in conjunction with the warning by the French Foreign Minister (Mr Georges Bidault) that if the E.D.C. were not given outside “counterweight and guarantors” the six nations might abandon it and revert to the national framework of the past. The six countries are France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and Italy.

“Best Left Unsaid” British newspapers today criticised Mr Dulles’s statement. The “Daily Telegraph” says: “The sentiment attributed to parents when chastising their children—‘this hurts me more than you’—has never carried conviction to children, however certain they may be of their parents’ fundamental affection. It is generally best left unsaid. That is surely true of Mr Dulles’s outburst. Indeed, when pressed, he did not seem very sure now the implied threat would be implemented; and no wonder, since American policy toward Europe is founded on a highly-enlightened and generous interpretation of the defence of America.

“It will not improve—as Mr Bidault showed—the chances of ratification. It may even embarrass European friends of ratification —and of America.. As Mr Dulles should know, the presentation of pistols, whether material or verbal, is not necessarily endearing.” The “Manchester Guardian” says: “Obviously such a reappraisal is the last thing Mr Dulles wants. But he left no doubt that if the European defence treaty is not ratified soon the withdrawal of American troops from Europe will be a strong probability. “This goes a good deal further than anything he has previously said in public. It has always been known that failure to ratify the E.D.C. would have serious repercussions in the United States—not the least in Congress—but the consequences have never before been stated so bluntly. “There can be no question, however, of the North Atlantic Treaty successfully surviving an American withdrawal from Europe. That would be a blow far more serious than failure to rearm Germany. Indeed, it would be a deadly blow to the security of the United States itself.

“It is understandable that Mr Dulles should be impatient, but not that he should make such a drastic threat. It would be folly, simply because of failure to agree immediately on arming Germany, to tear down the defences which have been built in Europe since 1950. The suicide would be America’s as much as Europe’s.”