HC Deb 30 January 1952 vol 495 cc163-5
21. Mr. F. J. Bellenger

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can now state in precise terms what form of military organisation has been agreed for Western Germany on her contributing to the Western defence system.

Mr. Eden

The form of military contributions to the European Defence Community by the participating countries, including Western Germany, is now under discussion at the Paris Conference on the European Defence Community. It is hoped that the final report of the Conference will be available for consideration by the North Atlantic Council in Lisbon next month.

The Treaty establishing the European Defence Community will, as the right hon. Member knows, be accompanied by an agreement establishing the future relationship between the German Federal Republic and the three Western Powers.

Mr. Bellenger

Is the House to understand that agreement on principle is to take place between the Federal German Republic on the one hand and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation on the other?

Mr. Eden

The right hon. Gentleman is quite right in that in the first place there will be agreement between the Powers concerned so far as the European defence contribution is concerned—that is between the six Powers—and then that will be referred to and discussed by, and I trust approved, if all goes well, at the Lisbon Conference next month.

Mr. Eric Fletcher

Would the right hon. Gentleman tell the House whether His Majesty's Government still abide by the safeguards and conditions upon which the principle of German re-armament was originally accepted, or whether they have abandoned those conditions and safeguards?

Mr. Eden

This arrangement will only be come to if the other five Powers now negotiating with Germany are in agreement, and if they are in agreement, they will be submitted at Lisbon to the N.A.T.O. Powers as a whole.

Mr. Shinwell

Is it not the case that the Bonn Government, or a representative of the Bonn Government, has now demanded association with N.A.T.O. officially before they agree to a German military contribution, and is that, therefore, not a new situation, and may we have an assurance from the right hon. Gentleman that before this Government agrees to Germany being associated with N.A.T.O. this House will have an opportunity of debating the matter?

Mr. Eden

I have received no official communication at all in this respect up-to-date, and I would certainly like to consider the matter. We would not wish to take a decision of that kind without the House having an opportunity of expressing its view; but, so far as I am aware, no such official announcement has been made to us.

Viscount Hinchingbrooke

Has His Majesty's Government given their consent to the idea which has been promulgated in the Press that there should be a two-year period of conscription in Germany and a force of something approaching 600,000 men available?

Mr. Eden

These details are new. I did not know that the figures were, or where my noble Friend got the figures, but, at the moment, discussion is going on as to the form of the German contribution between the six Powers concerned in the creation of a European Defence Community.