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HOUSE OF COMMONS
Foreign Affairs
[MR. EDEN.] recovery depends, for many important products which she needs, upon the Ruhr. It is the economic heart of Europe, and its products must be avail- able, at least, to all Western Europe. There is no dispute between us about that, but, on the broader theme of what we want to achieve, we want to help to bring about the economic recovery of Germany without allowing her oppor- tunities to resume her military power. I am sure that that can only be done within the framework of a Western Union, and that we can only get that framework if we take immense and patient pains to bring the French Gov- ernment along with us for that purpose.
With the passage of time, it may be possible to evolve, on a still wider basis --and I would like to see it closer col- laboration between the Ruhr and its com- plementary industries, both in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. I think that is the only way in which we shall get to a final arrangement, and, the more closely modern Germany is woven into the pattern of the free Western demo- cracies, the wider the opportunity to exorcise the German military menace, which has shadowed all our lives. That is the pattern to which I would like to see the Government working.
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There is another aspect of Anglo- French relations to which the right hon. Gentleman referred and that is O.E.E.C. and our Four-Year Programme. We are in a difficulty about that programme as Members of the House of Commons, be- cause it has never been officially pub- lished here at all. It appeared originally, I think, in an American paper published in Paris, and there have been very large quotations from it in the Economist and other papers. I hope some Minister later on will tell us that we shall have official cognisance of this document, which appears to be almost universally quoted but unknown to Members of Par- liament. That would help us for a start. I am not blaming the right hon. Gentle- man for a leakage-I can almost guess where it has come from-but, if there has been a leakage, the House of Com- mons should know about it as much as other people.
If this summary is correct, what our plan entails is that we propose to eliminate altogether our pre-war import
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surplus from Europe. I want to ask s Government whether that is true, because, if it is, the consequences for Western Europe, if the calculation is correct, will be that those countries will have to carry a heavier share for the balancing of European trade with dollar countries to the tune of something between 600 and 700 million dollars. That is a pretty heavy burden, and I should like to know if it is correct.
I am not saying that there is any escape from this very unpleasant decision. Our difficulties are well known and accepted by everybody in this country at least, but no one will deny that a programme adding a burden of 600 million dollars on Western European countries at this time is a pretty severe shock to their economy. I should like to be assured whether these figures are correct, and as to what is being done to ensure that, as far as possible, this very heavy burden is being widely spread. Incidentally, if we want to build Western Union success- fully, we cannot afford to take these things which are mainly luxuries which we ought to do without-without taking account of the effect of our decision on the economy of countries with whom we hope to live amicably.
Now I turn for a moment to Berlin. The right hon. Gentleman referred to the effect of the Berlin elections as an unequivocal rejection of the Soviet- inspired plan in favour of the Commu- nists, but he also seemed to suggest that confidence in the air lift is being main- tained, in spite of the Winter and the recent hold up through the fog. That is very good. None the less we now have istration, one more stage in the Soviet to face this final split in the city admin- plan to set up a puppet Government in Eastern Germany.
Mr. Gallacher: Oh!
Mr. Eden: Yes, that is what it is. There is the withdrawal of the Western liaison officers from the City Hall in the Soviet sector and the forced transfer of the legal magistrat to premises on the Western side. These things are an end to the pretence that the city's administra- tion could be carried on despite the differences between the great Powers. In recent months, and during the U.N.O. Assembly discussions, the Western Powers have held firmly to the fact- and I think it is true that it was the
Foreign Affairs
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597 So let vote in the Security Council which stood in the way of the effective handling of the differences between the Powers. In my view the Government's action in this respect, and that of the United States and France, before the United Nations has been entirely correct. Indeed, I think it has been inevitable. They have stood firm on their unquestioned rights. They have always shown them- selves fully prepared, and are still pre- pared, to agree to a four-Power meeting as soon as the blockade of Berlin was lifted. I cannot see that anything further than that could reasonably be asked of them.
Now there is the development in the Eastern zone to which the right hon. Gentleman did not refer, but about which I would like to say a few words. There is the arming of a very large police force there, it seems. On authoritative evidence it is something like the creation of a disguised military organisation. General Robertson told us on 27th October, that the immediate plans being made in the Soviet zone were to form a police force of about 200,000 and reports have indicated that the final figure would be about 400,000. Anything of that sort is in complete violation of the Potsdam Agreement, which the Soviet Government are continually reminding us is the basis of their policy.
Mr. Gallacher: That was repudiated.
Mr. Eden: That does not make it any better. Because someone repudiates a treaty which has been agreed the other party to it is not entitled to say "I will tear up the treaty." Parallel with that there has been rearming in many of the defeated States which are now Soviet satellites in Germany's rear. For instance, Bulgaria, Roumania and Hungary are arming above the limits allowed in the Peace Treaties. In face of all this there are the questions of what our attitude and the attitude of our Allies ought to be; it may well be that in part the purpose of all this military activity is to divert some of the effort of the West from economic reconstruction to rearmament. I myself do not exclude that, but the issue which is raised by these tactics reinforces the lesson which we have been learning here during the past few weeks -that all the expenditure in money and manpower which we can afford must be
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Foreign Affairs most profitably used. All this information increases my anxiety about the accounts which the Minister of Defence has given so frequently and so unsatisfactorily to this House.
That is a situation which will obviously require careful watching month by month. Effective counter-measures can only be taken, I agree, in unison between the Western countries on either side of the Atlantic. In other words there are urgent and cogent reasons for the speedy conclusion of an Atlantic Pact which can co-ordinate the plans and efforts of the Western countries in every sphere, political, military and economic. I would only add that if, before either of the last two Great Wars, the United States had been playing a part in Europe comparable to that in which she is now engaged, there would have been no war. That is one element to comfort us a little in the present situation.
was
Now a word or two about Italy and her colonies. I hope we all welcome, as the right hon. Gentleman did, the decision of the Italian Parliament to co-operate with Western Union. That decision reached by the Italian Government with their following of Christian Democrats, Saragat Socialists and others against the Communists, who were supported by our old friends the Nenni Socialists. That is good news, for we certainly all desire to co-operate with the new Italy which is We also want emerging from the war.
to restore to the full the old sentiments of friendship and mutual trust which for so long ruled between our two countries.
I think the Italian people are entitled to point with a measure of pride to the record of their achievement since the Armistice. Through their partisans and armed forces they made a valuable con- tribution in the last months of the fight- ing in Italy. Since then they have made what I believe to be a sincere and success- ful effort to restore democracy in Italy- at any rate, the supporters of Fascism have been reduced to a very negligible minority. Italian democracy has sur- vived, without recourse to forceful measures, attempts to paralyse the coun- try's economy by strikes and other subversive action. Finally, in the inter- national sphere they have made it clear, by their co-operation in O.E.E.C. and by public statements by their Prime Minister, and Count Sforza, that Italy has