MLF Again
Last week the MLF study group resumed its sessions in Paris. This week of course the NATO Foreign Ministers have been meeting in London. The continuing study group provides a way of keeping at least one still rather controversial issue from serious eruption. Variants on MLF pro- posals have been under discussion now for about four years. They could remain under discussion for a long time to come. In fact the ostensible sticking point at present is a political disagree- ment between Britain and Germany. The Germans are said to want the added confidence of a greater say in allied nuclear planning. The British Government is anxious to find some way of appearing to abolish the independent deter- rent. Last week the MLF study group resumed its sessions in Paris. This week of course the NATO Foreign Ministers have been meeting in London. The continuing study group provides a way of keeping at least one still rather controversial issue from serious eruption. Variants on MLF pro- posals have been under discussion now for about four years. They could remain under discussion for a long time to come. In fact the ostensible sticking point at present is a political disagree- ment between Britain and Germany. The Germans are said to want the added confidence of a greater say in allied nuclear planning. The British Government is anxious to find some way of appearing to abolish the independent deter- rent.
What we are waiting for is for one side or the other to make some concession on the number of mixed-manned surface vessels. I doubt if the issue will ever be resolved. But while there may be some point in keeping things quiet and the discussions ticking over for a time, I foresee dangerous consequences. The Germans are being humiliated. Sooner or later it will become apparent to them that there can be no progress, that they have spent several years dreaming of something that is never likely to come off. No MLF may of course be to the Germans' advan- tage, for an even partially nuclear-armed Germany was never easy to reconcile with pos- sible progress on reunification. It may well be to the advantage of Europe as a whole. But this is something for the allies to point out to Germany, not for her to discover in a process of disillusion. This time I suspect the reunification issue has not been brought up simply for electoral purposes. It will stay around. We should see that it does. We shall not do this by keeping going discussions which everyone pretends to take seriously but which perhaps nobody now really believes in.
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