NATO Stall

General George Catlett Marshall had taken the chairman's seat at the Washington conference of NATO's defense ministers with a sense of urgency. In his briefcase was a comprehensive plan for the defense of Western Europe. A previous meeting of NATO's Military Committee had agreed on the armed forces each country would contribute and on a supreme command (TIME, Nov. 6). Equally essential in the American plan was a German contribution; Marshall wanted about ten West German divisions spread through the NATO force, in the ratio of one German to every six or seven divisions from other West European countries.

Everyone had expected French fears and French objections to rearming the Germans. But no one quite expected that Defense Minister Jules Moch would toss into the parley a new, complex idea that went far beyond military organization into international politics and economics. Its essence: West German rearmament must not be above the regimental or battalion level, and then only within the framework of a West European federation, subject to the authority of a West European parliament and based on the Schuman Plan for integrating the West European coal & steel industry.

In the face of this sweeping and tortuously complicated proposal, the question of German rearmament or even continental defense became, for the moment, an idle topic of discussion. Chairman Marshall wasted no further effort, abruptly closed the meeting. Appointment of a supreme commander for Western Europe was deferred. The French plan was sent to NATO's Military Committee and Council of Deputies who will confer in London before month's end.

Plainly the French delegation did not share the American feeling of urgency in the defense of Europe. It would be at least nine months, they said, before promised U.S. equipment could reach French divisions, so why all the rush to rearm the Germans? There were mounting signs (see below) that U.S. patience with querulous West Europeans was wearing thin.

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