740.5/12–1551: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bruce) to the Secretary of State 1
3582. From MacArthur. Re Embtel 3527, rptd Brussels 102, London 945.2 Spaak called on General Eisenhower yesterday. He went over ground covered reptel and said Eur must reach agreement on EDC and EDF before Lisbon NAT mtg Feb. He had resigned from Council of Eur because he wished to be free to conduct campaign looking to early agreement on EDF which with Schuman plan was most important step in Eur unification. He regretted very much UK refusal to participate in EDF, but said WE continental countries shld recognize this decision as final at this time and proceed without UK. He expressed strong hope Churchill might make some positive declaration of support of EDC and couple with it offer of some concrete action such as some form of political association.
Re Belg he said Van Zeeland was in very difficult position. Neither Belg people nor Parliament had been kept informed of EDC–EDF developments. They did not understand what it was all about and there was very little time to conduct campaign to obtain understanding and support for EDC. He said that at present moment Van Zeeland was not only ahead of Belg Govt and Parliament opinion but [Page 967] Van Zeeland had very difficult problem with his own Catholic Party not only on common budget but also since it was largely Flemish, it was oriented toward UK, and therefore was reluctant to participate in any Eur move toward integration in which UK wld not also participate.
He said for last fifty years smaller Eur countries had fol Eur policy based on UK-Fr axis. Absence of UK from EDC meant in effect that small countries wld base their Eur policy on Fr-Ger axis. They were naturally reluctant to change almost overnight as it were.
Re US Spaak said US internatl policy in past fifteen years had been nothing short of “revolutionary.” He felt US Govt, Cong, and people were showing much greater international political maturity than was case in either UK or Fr. He felt, with respect these two countries in particular, there had been lack of enlightened leadership to make general public understand “what world is all about” and why they must do certain things if they wished to survive.
De Staercke (newly appointed Belg rep to Paris EDF conf) joined General Eisenhower and Spaak for luncheon. He said Dec 11 EDF Ministerial mtg at Strasbourg3 had marked definite step forward particularly with respect to Belg Govt. At this mtg Belg fully accepted principle of integrated rather than coalition EDF. Although no agreement had been reached on key problems of common budget and common procurement he was hopeful agreement wld be reached by Mins in their mtg at Paris Dec 27–28. He did not think technical committees cld make any further real progress before Min mtg other than to prepare different positions and possible areas of compromise thoroughly so that Mins cld reach agreement. He said there was growing realization among WE continental countries that if they fail to reach agreement on EDF in time for Lisbon mtg grave repercussions in terms of US policy toward Eur might result. He and Spaak both felt that in final analysis Eur wld reach agreement because of their fear of US reaction shld they fail. This wld not make US popular with Eur allies and indeed was not best basis upon which Eur shld enter EDF (i.e., they shld enter by conviction not pressure). Nonetheless this cld not be helped since he feared there was not sufficient time to develop full understanding and support in different Eur countries before Lisbon.4
Bruce
- This telegram was repeated for information to Brussels and London.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Regarding the meeting under reference here, see telegram 3533, December 13, from Paris, supra.↩
- The reference here is to the forthcoming Ninth Session of the North Atlantic Council scheduled to be held in Lisbon in February 1952.↩