New Partner?

Winston Churchill may fuzz up a debate on economics, but when the subject is military affairs he knows what he is talking about. In the House of Commons last week, Churchill turned his sights on the condition of Britain's armed forces and Germany's role in Western European defense. Said he:

"We still support the government in maintaining . . . compulsory national service ... If Britain were to repudiate national service at this time, as the Liberals propose, it would mean, in my opinion, the downfall of the whole defensive structure embodied in the Brussels Treaty and in the Atlantic pact . . . [But] even . . . with 380,000 men in uniform, I do not believe there are a couple of well-formed brigade groups which could be sent abroad at short notice."

A Regiment of Lancers. Churchill was irked because the Labor government had sold 100 jet fighter planes to Argentina for about -L-2,000,000. "There is a sense of disproportion about an act like this which passes the frontier of reason," Churchill declared. "Let me take a really simple example derived from the days ... of old-fashioned war. Suppose we had a regiment of Lancers, 500 strong. It might have cost -L-100,000 a year . . . There were the fine uniforms, there were the horses . . . the band and all that. What would have been thought of an administration which cut off the steel spear points of 100 of the lances and sold them to the local ironmonger at half-a-crown a piece to reduce expenses?"

Churchill turned-to Germany. "This long [European] front cannot be successfully defended," he said, "without the active aid of Western Germany . . . The mighty mass of the Russian armies and their satellites lie, like a fearful cloud, upon the German people. The Allies cannot give them any direct protection . . ."

Dazzling Potential. That same day, in Paris, France's General Charles de Gaulle also called attention to Germany's role in Western defense. De Gaulle wanted a Franco-German union. "One is dazzled," said De Gaulle, "by the possibilities which the united French and German potentials would offer--including Africa." De Gaulle said that he was thinking in terms of "Charlemagne's undertaking," i.e., the unification of Western Europe. Such a union, De Gaulle said, would change "the whole atmosphere between the Atlantic and the Ural Mountains."

Konrad Adenauer's West German Republic had been listening to Churchill and De Gaulle with both ears open. At week's end in Bonn, the Germans uttered an understatement: "The Federal Government," they said, "is interested in becoming a partner in the Western European security system."

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