number 1 - Centre d'études et de recherches européennes Robert ...

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Elena Calandri
example, the almost offensive British offers to German industry to manufacture
under licence. In the end, on 15 April, the BDI submitted a new counter proposal to
the armaments pool plan. They watered down the fiercely free market philosophy
of earlier positions and called for "harmonization of programmes" leading gradually
to specialization in armaments manufacture while recommending a clearing
house in order to bring about balance in the share out of orders among the West
European countries. The memorandum also suggested new institutional solutions,
namely, the establishment in NATO of a regional sub-committee for the Six and in
the WEU a Coordinating Committee to deal with specialization and the division of
labour. 79
What actually happened was that the French joined in the general tendency to
slow down the Paris negotiations. Their commitment to the pool faded. One delegate
indicated that the "provisional" period was now seen as a period of probation
which would be abandoned if the results were not positive. The Secretary General
himself was reported to be in tacit support of avoiding any breakdown prior to the
debate within the Conseil de la République. In fact, the only part of the original
proposals to which Paris remained strongly and actively committed was the role of
the WEU in the distribution of external armaments supplies. This meant that Mendès
France kept asking the Americans to channel military aid through the WEU
but was unsuccessful. 80 On 5 February the government of Mendès France fell. He
was to be replaced, but not until 23 February, by Edgar Faure. The new Cabinet
included leading figures in the supranational school, Antoine Pinay at the Quai
d'Orsay, Robert Schuman, Garde des Sceaux, Pierre-Henri Teitgen and Pierre
Pflimlin together with Gaullist ministers. In his inaugural address, Faure spoke at
length on European subjects but did not mention the armaments pool. 81
Unsurprisingly, in early February, the British government decided the time was
ripe for it to intervene and Sir Christopher Steel submitted British counter proposals.
They expunged supranational features and proposed only a regime of voluntary
cooperation similar to the provisional regime in the French draft, to be
complemented only by close association between the WEU organs and NATO's
standardization agency. The British proposals recommended the establishment of a
permanent committee and two sub-committees on standardization and the coordination
of production, to be based in Paris, and work on a voluntary basis. Joint production
agreements could include all or some WEU members as well as non WEU
states. 82
79. AMRE, Wormser, 24, Conseil national du patronat français, Note sur le contre-projet de BDI relatif
à l'agence des armements, 18 May 1955. 64 NA, RG 59, box 3114, 740.5/2-255, tel. Aldrich
(London), no. 3414, February 2, 1955, secret.
80. NA, RG 59, 3114, 740.5/1-1855, tel. Matthews (The Hague), no. 1043, January 18, 1955; 740.5/1-
2655, tel. Hughes (Paris), no. POLTO 1409, January 26, 1955; 740.5/1-1955, tel. Hughes (Paris),
no. POLTO 1355, January 19, 1955.
81. L'Année politique, 1955; see also Faure's memoirs, E. FAURE, Mémoires II. Si tel doit être mon
destin ce soir..., Paris 1984: in his memoirs he does not even mention the Paris conference and
ignores the French paternity of the Armaments Pool's project, see p. 148.
82. NA, RG59, 3114, 740.5/2-255, tel. Aldrich (London), no.3414, 2 February 1955.