The Daily Record

WASHINGTON - The pact for a European army which the Foreign Ministers initial today is not a lengthy document. It is quite short. But behind its written pages are thousands of unwritten chapters recording the hopes of the future, the history of the past, and the hurdles in the path of peace.

Historically. today marks the climax of 300 years of warfare, back and forth across the Rhine, back and forth between the French and German armies, back and forth- until the wheat fields and the forests were tangled with barbed wire and drenched with blood.

So this pact. putting the armies of two bitter enemies France and Germany-under one flag and in one uniform, could be the most significant milestone for peace the world has ever seen. To those whose sons have gone forth to war year after year. to those who are weary of war they are suspicious even of us, it could be the millennium.

But because it does carry the hopes of millions., and because the goals of the Kremlin do not flourish in the soil of peace, the European Army Pact faces terrific hurdles. Moscow is determined that this pact never shall go into full force. So the signing today will mark the beginning of the greatest war of nerves since V-E Day.

JEERS FOR RIDGWAY
Even before the ceremony today. Moscow has been marshaling its forces to scare Western Europe out of this momentous agreement. Here are the moves which will come to a climax in the immediate or near future:

1. General Matthew Ridgway's arrival will touch off a vociferous anti-American demonstration. He will be branded the butcher of Korea, held responsible for the highly exaggerated prisoner troubles in Korea. and accused as a user of germ warfare. Communist propaganda regarding germ warfare has been so successful that about half the people of Europe really believe it.

As a result. some of our best friends believe Ridgway's appointment to Paris was a mistake.

2. Soviet rearmament of East Germany is increasing. This is probably a psychological move made to worry the French and scare the West Germans away from the European Army Pact.

SEIZE BERLIN
3. There's been a heavy Russian build-up around Berlin. Simultaneously Communist civilians are reported planning to flock into West Berlin. stage riots, and give an excuse to Communist troops to enter the city. This time, it's reported. the Russians plan to seize both Berlin airports. thus making it impossible for us to repeat the airlift. In such event, Berlin would be starved out and have to capitulate
The alternative would be war.

4. European inflation is on the increase and is our second worst enemy. Some people claim it is even enemy No. 1. For, with prices high and wages low, inflation makes for Communism. Communist Parliament members in France and Italy are endeavoring to create as much economic instability as possible in order to increase inflation.

Inflation has brought substantial business to a standstill throughout Western Europe, and this will be increased if there is any substantial cut in U. S. aid to Europe.

5 Ratification of the United Army Pact is uncertain. and will be made so by the above events. This is Moscow's real goal- namely. to discourage, frighten, disillusion the peoples of France and Germany to such extent that their Parliaments refuse to ratify the historic pact being initialed today.

Above, however, is set forth the pessimistic part of the picture. Above are the hazards and pitfalls to watch.

On the other hand. it remains a fact that a pact providing for a United European Army. putting French and German troops under one uniform, is being initialed today. This could end 300 years of bloodshed. And this is more important than all the tricks Moscow is pulling out of the bag to block it.

Twenty-four years ago I was present in the Salon d'Horloge at the signing of the famed Kellogg-Briand Pact, The August sun spread its slanting rays over the Seine. penetrated the deep-curtained windows of the Quai d'Orsay and danced among the great crystal candelabra of Louis XVI as Europe's statesmen scratched their names on the parchment outlawing war supposedly forever.

At that ceremony were such idealistic statesmen as Dr. Eduard Benes of Czechoslovakia. whose heart was broken by the Communists. Gustav Stresemann of Germany, who did his best to oppose Hitler, and Aristide Briand of France, who strove for better relations with Germany. They truly felt that war might be outlawed at that ceremony in the Salon d'Horloge in August, 1928.

But in the background lurked forces of Fascism and Nationalism which gradually undercut that treaty and edged the world toward war.

Today the same forces. this time under the name of Communism, are equally intent on wrecking the pact being signed. The question is. will they succeed? The answer, in reality. is up to us.

It is supposed to be axiomatic that history repeats. But nothing is really axiomatic. And if the more enlightened people of the world remember the mistakes of the past, history need not repeat.