NORTH ATLANTIC PACT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27027, 11 March 1949, Page 4

NORTH ATLANTIC PACT

With the giving by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of “ informal approval ” to the draft of the North Atlantic pact a significant advance has been made. It is now believed that formal steps will be taken during this month, but first the European prospective signatories have to make up their minds. In considering a security pact they have looked to the United States not only for a promise of aid but in anticipation of the physical materialisation of American military strength along their own borders. They have regarded the pact as a guarantee of their individual safety not—as it can only be—an alliance for mutual support, and aid if necessary. On the other hand, the commitments which the United States can accept are limited by the nature of its Constitution —a fact which the record of President Roosevelt’s long struggle up to the time of ■ Pearl Harbour ought to have impressed upon the European peoples. The United States, being in a position to regard the overall situation with some objectivity, has also had to protect itself against being involved in a pact so formidably phrased that it would almost certainly be regarded by Soviet Russia as tantamount to a declaration of hostilities. The informal approval by the Senate Committee means that a formula has been prepared which reconciles all these difficulties and makes it clear to all parties that the United States does mean business.

The importance with which the pact is regarded has been demonstrated by the earnestness of the discussions on commitments before any draft proposals had been put on paper, and by Russia’s approach to Norway, which also anticipated the future. Indeed as' the Economist remarked, the Russian action “ crystallised ideas which were getting rather confused and hastened action which was getting rather leisurely.” According to reports the pact, which is a legal instrument under the United Nations’ Charter, provides that an attack on one signatory will be regarded as an attack against all and that immediate action will be taken to restore and maintain security. Two undertakings are essential for the success of the arrangement. The United States must be regarded as the “reservoir of defensive power ” and its strength must not be dissipated throughout a hemisphere-long chain of bases. A corollary to this is the requirement that defensive strategy should be planned to avoid a repetition of the tactics which gave the Nazis their initial successes. The ideal of the North Atlantic pact is a firm alliance of political and military strength which no power in the world could challenge with any hope of ultimate victory.