EDC Without Ersatz

Now that the French were talking of "alternatives" to EDC (which might require renegotiating the whole treaty with the other five nations). West Germany's Chancellor Konrad Adenauer decided the time had come to make his own position explicit and public. Despite Adenauer's repeated affirmations of unyielding support of EDC. France announced that it would send Foreign Under Secretary Guerin de Beaumont to see him about EDC "compromise," apparently under the illusion that Der Alte might still be cajoled.

Adenauer chose an interview over the Northwest German Radio network for his answer, knowing that the microphones would carry his words across the Rhine: "EDC is not only the best but the sole good solution . . . Alternatives to EDC differ from true EDC as ersatz coffee differs from real coffee ... In the unlikely case that France rejects EDC, nothing would remain but to establish a German national army alongside a French national army and other national armies ... It would be an absurdity of history and of politics if France, by allowing EDC to fail, should be directly responsible for the creation of the German national army."

At week's end, piqued by Adenauer's blunt remarks, Premier Mendes-France called off the De Beaumont mission.

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