Common Front

The meetings of the Foreign Ministers in London last fortnight were notable for launching both "total diplomacy" and specific means to that end: the Schuman plan to pool French and German heavy industry, a sensible division of military labor by which each member nation will eventually do one main defense job for all, and a unified high command for the cold war on Communism. The meeting had still another achievement, announced last week: during the talks, Messrs. Acheson, Bevin and Schuman reached their first accord on the Near East.

The West had been at odds in the Near East ever since 1946, when the U.S. criticized British policy in Palestine and French policy in Syria and Lebanon. The chief gainer from the long rift was Russia.

Now the U.S., France and Britain have jointly guaranteed the status quo of this troubled region. The three-power statement said that: 1) Israel and six Arab states need arms for self-defense and to help defend the area as a whole; 2) all seven Near East nations* had given assurances that the arms they buy will not be used for aggression; 3) the Western powers will take immediate action "both within and outside the United Nations" if any Near Eastern state should violate "frontiers or armistice lines."

In effect, Britain, France and the U.S. told the Israelis and Arabs that, since they had reached a border balance, they should stop making faces at each other and concentrate on developing internal stability to meet their common danger from the Russian threat.

Everyone except Russia was pleased with the three-power statement. The West had simply--and at long last--decided that a unified policy would not only help keep peace but also remind Russia that Britain, France and the U.S. are capable of a common front even in an area where their interests have in the past differed.

-Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

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