Repeat Washington No. 28.

Following from Heeney, Begins: My immediately preceding messages re North Atlantic Deputies' discussion of German participation.

1. As the Military Committee representatives each have to prepare a paper on German participation within a week, and as we shall also have to prepare instructions for Wilgress by the November 13th meeting of Deputies, I think we should begin now to put some ideas on paper, working within the general policy of the Government to leave the prime initiative on this subject to those countries more directly concerned with German participation than we are.

2. In our judgment, the extremely grave situation we are now faced with can only be resolved if the French Government are prepared to modify their proposals. This almost certainly means modification in substance. If the French can be brought to this course, the United States would, we think, be prepared to compromise on the details of their proposals. The problem is, therefore, how best to move the French.

3. In the first place, we think that both the French and the United States Governments may have an inflated idea of the strength of their respective bargaining positions. The Americans feel that the piper will, in the final analysis, be able to call the tune. The French believe that Western European defence is hopeless without their participation and that the United States will have to come around and produce their reinforcement of Western Europe if the most cooperative French Government possible in present circumstances is to remain in power and France is to produce the twenty divisions she has promised by 1953. Before there can be successful negotiations, both sides will have to realize their interdependence. On the one hand, therefore, it seems to me we should be urging on the French the political, psychological and military risks of delay, and on the other hand, trying to impress the United States with the dangers of any attempt to steamroll the French, which would only get their backs up and strengthen French "neutralism".

4. On points of detail, we must be careful that the Military Committee do not introduce political assumptions for example, as to the size of units that would be politically acceptable to the Germans. (General Bradley said informally that the United States military were not prepared to accept anything less than German divisions because it would be politically unacceptable to the Germans - not because it was militarily impracticable.) For this reason, I think our military paper should address itself to the problem of the smallest German units that would make sense from a military point of view in the immediate future. I think that General Foulkes mentioned battalions as sufficiently large for training requirements in the early stages.

5. Another line of possible compromise might be developed on the question of a German federal agency for recruiting and training purposes. It does not perhaps matter very much whether this agency is regarded as a section of the German Ministry of Labour, as is apparently proposed by the French, with SHAPE providing as much of the central administration and direction as possible, or is a separate agency as proposed by the United States and perhaps on this point we might meet the French for appearance sake.

6. In attempting to work out some formula that would bring the French along, at least on a short-term basis, perhaps the most fruitful approach would be to try to draw up a timetable showing what steps might be accomplished during the next three months, during the following six months and during the year after that, searching for common elements in both United States and French proposals.

7. These are preliminary and incomplete thoughts on this problem which has now become critical for the whole Atlantic community. When I return to Ottawa we must immediately get at the production of a paper for the Minister and Cabinet. Meantime I would be grateful if urgent consideration could be given in Ottawa and London to how we might help to resolve the present unhappy dilemma.

Please repeat this message to Wilgress and Vanier. Ends.