740.5/3–254: Despatch
The Counselor of Embassy in France (Joyce) to the Department of State 1
No. 2239
Subject:
- Call for Anti-EDC Meeting in Paris of European Representatives.
A group of thirty-two French personalities—Gaullists, neutralists, fellow-travelers, and Communists—including nineteen Parliamentarians, have launched an appeal for representatives of the six EDC countries [Page 884] and England who are opposed to the EDC to meet together shortly in Paris.
This message (Enclosure No. 1)2 stresses that the EDC Treaty will jeopardize not only the national independence of the nations involved, but also the “political basis for liberty.” It goes on to say that the Treaty “risks putting European forces at the service of German militarism” and concludes by urging Parliamentarians and other leading personalities from the six signatory countries who share the same doubts as to the EDC to meet in Paris on March 20 and 21 to map out a common line of action.
The signatories of the message (Enclosure No. 2)2 represent the hard core of those violently opposed to the Treaty—starting with Gaullist Senator Michel Debré and Deputy Jacques Soustelle, working through former Premier Edouard Daladier, neutralist Claude Bourdet, and ending up with Progressive Deputy Gilbert de Chambrun and CPF Politburo member Laurent Casanova, the Communist Party’s delegate in the Peace Movement. This alignment of ill-assorted bed-fellows is not new, some of them being the same as those who accepted the Polish Government’s invitation last December to study the Oder-Neisse frontier problem. However, it is of interest that the rank and file Gaullists are reportedly now getting fed up with those RPF leaders joining with the Communists in their anti-EDC campaign. The appeal so far has received only limited publicity, Communist Humanité being the only paper to devote prominent front-page treatment to the “invitation from eminent French personalities.”
The Embassy is reliably informed that this initiative is the result of decisions taken recently by representatives of the French and other Western European Communist Parties in Berlin, and that the Paris meeting is designed to be one of the culminating points in the campaign here against EDC ratification. It is understood that the invitation to the meeting is being mailed by the Committee for a Peaceful Settlement of the German Problem, in coordination with the World Peace Movement, to all members of the Parliaments of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and England, as well as educators, scientists, writers and trade-union representatives, who are known as opponents of the EDC. The purpose of the meeting is obviously to coordinate parliamentary and other opposition to the EDC in all countries concerned, and to make such opposition as articulate as possible, on the eve of the French Assembly debate. Casanova is to be in charge of preparations so far as the French Communist Party is concerned. The French Communists are believed to be confident that the Government will not ban the meeting, as so many non-Communist [Page 885] deputies are involved in its sponsorship, and that numerous non-Communist and even conservative foreign parliamentary and other leaders may be expected to attend.