I herewith submit for examination by the Ministers two French drafts
concerning the organisation of the North Atlantic Treaty (item 2(a) of the Agenda).
Annex A
secret
[London, May 12, 1950.]
French Draft Resolution on the Organisation
of the Mechanism of the Treaty
The North Atlantic Council, which was created in accordance with
Article 9 of the Treaty, has only met twice on Ministerial level
and on two other occasions through the intermediary of its
diplomatic representatives in Washington.
[Page 1104]
Now, Article 9 makes the Council the ruling body of the Atlantic
Treaty; it is therefore the Council’s absolute duty to be in a
position to fulfil its central role among the organisms of the
Treaty by adopting more efficient methods with a view to keeping
itself constantly informed concerning questions falling within
its attributions, to take the necessary decisions, and to see
that these are carried out.
The experience of one year has revealed that contacts have been
too spaced out to assure, on the political plane, the exchange
of views on matters of common interest within the framework of
the Treaty, and that though, in the military field, the
strategic conception of the Treaty may have been adopted and the
corresponding sum of necessary resources may be being
established, no really concrete result has however yet been
obtained in respect of the organisation of efficient common
defence whether it be in respect of armaments and arms
manufacturing, the sharing out of financial costs, the
adaptation of armed forces, of their development or their
internal structure.
In view of this situation and in order to assist the Council in
the exercise of its responsibilities, it is absolutely necessary
that a restricted working organism should immediately be
instructed by the Council to study measures that should be taken
to set out as a whole the military, technical, industrial and
financial activities affecting the common defence of the
signatory powers.
This organism will place its conclusion at the disposal of the
Council within three months, and at the same time propose
required decisions. It could then be instructed, in conditions
to be determined, to supervise the carrying out of decisions
taken by the Council.
At the same time in order to ensure that the activities of this
organism shall have a permanent character each government shall
name a Deputy to its present representative. Deputies should be
able to devote all the time necessary, and as continuously as
required, to the exercise of the Council’s responsibilities.
The Council of Deputies shall be responsible, between meetings of
the North Atlantic Council, and for and on behalf of it, for the
implementing of its directives and in particular for the study
entrusted to the restricted organism mentioned above. It will in
particular devote itself to facilitating the simultaneous
progress of work carried out by different committees (military,
economic, financial and of defence) and ensure the cooperation
of all organisms of the Treaty in the study undertaken. Finally
it will undertake regular exchanges of view on both general and
political questions (notably with regard to informing public
opinion) which present a common interest within the framework of
the Treaty for all signatory powers.3
Annex B
French Draft Resolution of the North
Atlantic Council
secret
[London, May 12, 1950.]
The Council agrees in particular to bear in mind the following
general considerations while carrying out its tasks as defined
in Council Resolution No.
1. The essential objective of the signatory powers of the North
Atlantic Treaty is to ensure that their countries shall be in a
position victoriously to resist any aggression.
This objective can only be attained:
- —by the use and standardisation of the most up to date
material and equipment, products of up to date technical
progress.
- —by the acknowledgement on the part of each country of
the necessity for the maintenance of disposable forces
for the initial fighting and the character and
composition of which forces should be adapted to these
types of material and equipment with a view to obtaining
maximum efficiency in common defence.
- —by the parallel creation of the necessary operational
internal structure for the use of these military
resources within the framework of common defence.
2. The essential and most difficult problem being that of arms
manufacture it is therefore desirable that the nature and
quantity of material and equipment necessary to attain this
objective should be decided upon as soon as possible.
3. The production of this material and equipment should be shared
out as far as military, economic and financial considerations
permit among the industries of participating nations so that the
best results may be obtained in the shortest possible time and
at the lowest cost. In this respect, production programmes thus
established should constantly be brought up to date in order to
ensure that the individual resources of countries as regards
priorities and speed of production may satisfy to the full the
common need.
At the same time the Council agrees that the following questions
should be examined as soon as possible:
-
a)
- How can balanced collective forces for all the
signatory powers of the North Atlantic Council best be
set up?
-
b)
- How should the necessary operational internal
structure be at the same time created for the employment
of these resources should war break out?
-
c)
- How should the financial charges arising from the
carrying out of these tasks, taking into consideration
the necessity for maintaining their economic, financial
and social stability, be shared out as fairly as
possible between the various participating nations?4
