THE NATIONS: Watch on the Rhine

British and Belgian army groups last week held joint maneuvers near Aachen. The theme for the exercises was: “Strong invading forces have reached the Rhine and are attempting to cross it . . .”

That sentence summarized Western Europe’s fear. In the French National Defense Ministry’s Salle des Maréchaux, where Napoleon used to brief his marshals, the five Western European nations last week decided to set up a watch on the Rhine. Implementing the Brussels alliance (TIME, March 15), the defense ministers of Great Britain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxemburg met and agreed on common measures against aggression—i:e., against a possible Russian attack. They set up “permanent international command . . . under a permanent military chairman . . .”

The post of “chairman” was to go to Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery; under him France’s General Alphonse-Pierre Juin (now governor of North Africa) was to command all land forces; Britain was to get command both at sea and in the air. The ultimate aim was to weld five armies, standing at the West’s frontier, into one army.

The brave design faced serious obstacles. Some of them were sourly expressed last week by General Charles de Gaulle. Although no site for the permanent Western command had been determined, De Gaulle feared that it would be London. Said he: “Europe must be defended in Europe … I simply say that England is an island. I can’t do anything about that, neither can she. And I say to you that Europe is not an island but a continent . . . The natural center of a defense plan is France. But for the present, France is hardly present. The problem of European defense will have to be reconsidered when France has a real government . . .”

Will the British Cook? A good many U.S. and British policymakers were reluctant to base a European defense system on France. Said one British diplomat in Paris: “The Communists or their informers sit in every French ministry. What can you tell them, I ask you? Any military secret we reveal will be in Moscow in 15 minutes.”

De Gaulle’s blast had immediate effects. The French cabinet nervously asked London to postpone the official announcement. Field Marshal Montgomery, who had felt so sure of his appointment that he had prepared to resign as chief of the Imperial General Staff, was waiting in his new Surrey country house to hear whether or not he had a job. Never a popular general, Monty faced much opposition as “chairman” of Western Europe’s command.

One noteworthy criticism came from Belgium. Wrote Brussels’ Communist Drapeau Rouge: “Belgian soldiers loathe Buckingham Palace parades. They are afraid Montgomery might force them to eat that horribly cooked British food.” The U.S. was known to prefer General Juin; and Juin, who used to be General de Gaulle’s chief of staff, flatly refused to serve under the proposed setup.

This week, a settlement was reached. The French accepted Montgomery as overall “chairman” and British Air Marshal Sir James Robb as head of the air forces. In return, French Vice Admiral Robert Jaujard would be head man of the combined Western fleets. French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny would command the land forces. This was a tremendous portent for the success of Western Union; if the Royal British Navy could stomach a French admiral as its theoretical commander, almost anything was possible.

Will the U.S. Help? The real problem of Western Europe’s defense centered in Washington. Very quietly, Washington has started work on a kind of military Marshall Plan; the U.S. Army has drafted a preliminary list of what the Western European alliance will need in the way of military supplies (and what it can produce itself). Request for Lend-Lease legislation would be submitted early next year to Congress and the nation.

The West’s watch on the Rhine was far from firmly established; ahead lay much disagreement and bickering of the kind foreshadowed by De Gaulle’s statement and the French government’s hesitation. Nevertheless, bickering about Western Union was better than no Western Union at all.