Motion for a resolution
| Doc. 42
| 12 May 1951
European Defence
" Th e Assembly,
Welcomes the action taken in recent months by the States Members of the Council of Europe, by the United States of America and by Canada to strengthen their defences and to collaborate more closely for the protection of Western civilisation and freedom;
Notes in particular :
a that many countries have decided substantially to increase their defence budgets, to extend the period of military service, and to divert an increasing proportion of their industrial resources to the production of military equipment and supplies;
b that an integrated Allied Headquarters has been set up under the Supreme Command of General Eisenhower, to which a number of States have already begun to allocate armed forces;
c that the United States Congress has decided to accord to the free nations of Europe further substantial assistance in their re-armament;
d that the French Government has convened a conference of several States to consider the creation of a European Army;
e that the British and French Governments have made it clear that they would view with concern any act of aggression against Yugoslavia; and that the American and British Governments have decided to send arms and other aid to Yugoslavia to strengthen her power of resistance;
Urges the Governments concerned :
a to draw up a joint programme of the armed forces, equipment and other elements required for the defence of Free Europe and to devise an equitable basis for the apportionment among the nations concerned of the burden of re-armament;
b to reach agreement upon the standardi-sati onof suitable types of arms and equipment ;
c to include Greece and Turkey in the system of Western defence, either by an extension of the Atlantic Pact or by the creation of an organisation for the joint defence of the Eastern Mediterranean area; and to make it possible for these two countries to participate in the proposed European Army;
d to design the structure of the European Army in a form which will render possible the inclusion in it of troops from countries which are not disposed to accept the supranational institutions envisaged in the Pleven Plan;
e to set up a joint organisation to provide by radio and other methods, a co-ordinated European information service for the peoples behind the Iron Curtain and to make known to them that, as members of the European family, a place awaits them in the Council of Europe;
f to give an assurance that the defence forces of the Western Powers will not be withdrawn from Germany except in agreement with the German Federal Governement and as part of a general settlement with the Soviet Union providing for the equalisation of the level of armaments and for the unification of Germany under democratic conditions;
g to make a joint declaration that any further extension of the area of Soviet domination in Europe will be jointly resisted ;
Expresses confidence that, provided they make the necessary effort, the free nations can rapidly build up an increasingly effective deterrent to aggression and progressively restore the balance of power in the world. "
