FOREIGN RELATIONS: The Secretary's Report

Exaggerated prophecies of gloom had surrounded Dean Acheson's departure for the London and Lisbon parleys. Last week, reporting on his trip over a radio-TV hookup, Acheson countered with an exaggerated picture of sunlight and good cheer. Said he: "The past two weeks have been a time of historic decision . . . They have brought us to the dawn of a new day in Europe." Acheson based his claim on "five major accomplishments" of the London and Lisbon meetings.

The accomplishments are real, but not Sanforized; when scrutinized, they shrink.

What Is a Division? "First," said Acheson, "agreement was reached on the forces to be made available to General Eisenhower's NATO command . . ." He was referring to the Lisbon decision that "approximately 50 divisions" for Western defense would be in existence by the end of 1952. This figure is strictly a statistic. Of the 50 divisions, only about 25 will be combat-ready and in Europe. The others are mere skeletons of reserve divisions. They are not to be mobilized until war begins, and then many of them are expected to come from Britain and the U.S.

What is a division? To Eisenhower, it is a unit as strong as the U.S. divisions that he debarked on Dday, 1944. To the Lisbon planners, a division is only 75% of that strength. According to Eisenhower's figures, Lisbon actually agreed to only 40 divisions, not 50.

Since Eisenhower now has 20 combat-ready and ten reserve divisions, the Lisbon agreement did provide for progress. But there will not be military security in Europe in 1952.

To pay for the "50" divisions, the Lisbon meeting accepted the "Wise Men's" recommendation for a total NATO defense expenditure of $300 billion in the next three years. For the first time, the NATO nations adopted a unified economic program for sharing defense costs and spending the money in a coordinated way.

Commendable as the Wise Men's efforts were, it was notable that NATO, which was formed in 1949, took until 1952 to get itself a single, sensible economic blueprint. Acheson frankly recognized that it was only a blueprint, that the $300 billion has still to be appropriated by 14 national Parliaments, including the U.S. Congress.

The day before Acheson spoke, Premier Edgar Faure's French government fell on the very issue of raising the tax revenue required by the Wise Men (see FOREIGN NEWS). Here was a solid warning of how fragile the whole Lisbon web might be. Embarrassed, Acheson merely noted that the French cabinet crisis "illustrates the problems which will arise."

Arming Germany. "Second," said Acheson, "agreement was reached on the bases and facilities ... for these forces." A more specific interpretation: after more than a year of financial chaos and construction delays, the Lisbon conferees agreed on how to share the $400 million bill for building the air bases and supply lines that Eisenhower requires.