Two Issues Face The French

Wanganui Chronicle, 24 October 1950, Page 5

Two Issues Face The French

Arming Germany; The Threat In Indo-China LONDON, Oct. 23 (Recd. 6.10 p.m.) —The Paris correspondent of “The Times,” in a preview of problems facing the French Parliament, which opened last week, says two issues are outstanding—the nature and extent of the German contribution to Western European security and the war in Indo-China. The present session will be the last meeting of this legislature, which faces a general election next year, and policy on both the issues must be determined before the members disperse. “The nature of the German contribution to Western European security has become the subject of an awkward disagreement between France and the United States,” says the “Times” correspondent, “and the French Government announced that it would lay the problem before the National Assembly. There are signs that Cabinet is less hostile than it was to the formation of German divisions and their incorporation in a European land army. “Some Ministers are beginning to feel that the United States Government will not yield on that point and that France had, therefore, better make a virtue of necessity. Others have been impressed by American and British readiness to commit forces on the Continent and by the extent of financial aid which the United States is prepared to give France.

“Some think that the French stand on this issue contradicts the general policy towards Germany and they fear that relations between the two Governments may suffer. Others wonder whether there is much validity in several of the arguments put forward by the French Foreign Office and others yet doubt whether public opinion cares much about this issue, or whether the Government’s decision on it will have much influence in next year’s election.

“The debate on Indo-China will be more in the nature of a post-mortem and will be more bitter on that account. But the Assembly will be hoping for more American aid in this theatre, and will have to weigh the incidence of war there on the re-arm-ament effort in Europe. The United States Government will doubtlessly take the same view.

“Thus the German question will have an indirect influence on measures in Indo-China. In any case, France’s 180 Communist deputies will be there to remind the Assembly that the struggle against militant Communism, whether hot or cold, is indivisible.”—(Special N.Z.P.A. correspondent).