NEWS OF THE WEEK
Anxiety in Bonn
The storm over the conditions the Germans are making— or, in the language of much of the Press, the blackmail they are levying—in return for the provision of troops for Western defence has certainly complicated the situation which the Atlantic Council must face at its postponed meeting in Lisbon on February 20th. It has become an open question whether any agreed scheme for a European army and for a workable relationship between it and N.A.T.O. can be drawn up in time. Possibly the chances will be better if Dr. Adenauer can come to London to meet the British, French and American Foreign Ministers on February 16th. But in the meantime it is the extreme delicacy of the situation in Bonn itself that must cause most anxiety. Dr. Adenauer, it is true, secured a majority of 48 in the Bundestag last Friday for his resolution committing Germany to a defence contribution and reiterating the claim for equal rights. But it is still not decided whether an amendment to the constitution is necessary in order to permit the defence contribution to be made; and if it is necessary, then the chances that Dr. Adenauer can get together the majority of 122 that he would then require to get his policy past the Bundestag are slight. The Socialist Opposition is not showing the smallest sign of forbearance, or even of responsibility, over this matter. The old ohne mich argument is still being heard, and Professor Carlo Schmidt, one of the more powerful figures in the Social Democratic party, is once again seeking to represent Germany as a mere potential battlefield. Even worse was a statement made by another Social Democrat, Dr. Arndt, during the debate at Bonn last week, in which he not only represented the German defence contribution as a bribe to the Americans to stay in Europe, but descended to still greater depths of cynicism in arguing that it was a superfluous bribe, since the Americans had to secure the German industrial potential anyway. If this is all the German Social Democrats have to offer, then Ur. Adenauer's political future must be watched with the greatest anxiety. There is nothing to take his place.
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