Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR Explains French Hesitancy On European Army Treaty We Americans are an impatient lot. When we have decided what we consider the best course of action, we want the other fellow to...
...And what if Germany is unified...
...These questions are not easy ones to answer, and we should be more tolerant of the French if they seem hesitant about so decisive a step as signing the EDC treaty...
...Are Britain and America prepared to keep sufficient troops indefinitely on the Continent to insure against that possibility...
...New York City Benjamin Protter Correction In the editorial, "Children's Airlift," in the December 28 New Leader, the "Berlin youngsters" referred to were actually refugee children temporarily living in Berlin...
...There was talk a few years back of the urgency of arming West Germany...
...Perhaps some adventurer who will decide to secede from the European Defense Community...
...Your editorial, "France Falters" [The New Leader, December 7], shows evidence of this impatience...
...I have yet to see anywhere a frank and sympathetic account of the many reasons why the French are more and more hesitant to ratify the EDC treaty...
...The French are now engaged in a bloody and protracted struggle in Indo-China...
...The Saar and Trieste questions can and probably will be settled peacefully...
...Consider West Germany in relation to France...
...Will the united Germany accept its obligations under the EDC...
...When we have decided what we consider the best course of action, we want the other fellow to follow suit and jump without further discussion...
...Or will it launch a drive to rectify its eastern boundaries even at the risk of war...
...However, the EDC treaty which resulted was signed by a French government that no longer exists, and it is absurd to imagine that such a treaty, which cuts to the very core of French sovereignty, could be accepted without further consultation of the French people...
...I should like to present some here...
...Nor is it possible until there is a solution of the Trieste problem acceptable to Italy and Yugoslavia...
...In any case, the treaty cannot be put into effect until the Saar dispute is resolved to the permanent satisfaction of both France and Germany...
...Can they place themselves in a position where they must ask others' permission to meet situations like that...
...The thought of it frightened the French, who thereupon conceived the idea of a European Army...
...Also, the organization raising funds for the airlift to West Germany is the International Rescue Committee, not the "International Refugee Committee...
...Turning to another aspect of the problem, Britain has declined to participate in the EDC because of its commitments to the Commonwealth...
...Until they are, however, there is no need to rush headlong into ratification of the EDC...
...But France, too, has far-flung commitments, and feels that it must be free to employ its military forces wherever and whenever necessary...
...Who will follow him...
...Today, the Bonn Republic has a democratic leader, but he is an old man...
...Her population is larger and her economic capacity greater...
Vol. 37 • January 1954 • No. 2
