Word: benelux
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Five nations-France, Britain and the Benelux countries (Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg)-had signed at Brussels a 50-year mutual assistance pact, with emphasis on a military alliance. Last week the five defense ministers met in London, established a permanent five-power military committee, pondered common defense problems...
...could the U.S. do? On one point the State Department and the military could agree: economic aid must be supported by some kind of military help and vice versa. An example of what that meant came this week from Brussels, where Britain and France seemed ready to join with Benelux in a military as well as economic alliance (see INTERNATIONAL). With full U.S. backing, such a pact might finally draw a firm line between the uncertain West and the all-too-certain East...
...final treaty would also include economic clauses. France and Italy have been discussing plans for a customs union for five months, will soon sign an agreement on economic cooperation. The Benelux countries have already set up a common customs system. But Britain, staking her economic future on imperial arrangements in the Commonwealth and Empire, has held back from economic merger with continental countries...
...London, the logjam broke after ten days of hard-driving pressure, stepped up by the Czech crisis. The Big Three of the West (the U.S., Britain and France) began the conference with a sensible and long-delayed step-admission of the Little Three (Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg). The Benelux countries depend so closely on German industry that they insisted on a settlement. France yielded along the logical lines of compromise. The agreement in principle looks toward a Ruhr that will be politically part of Germany, but an international control of its economy will see that its products are available...
...that good enough? One who thought not was the hardheaded Premier of Belgium, Paul-Henri Spaak. When the draft of a treaty against "German aggression" was shown to the Benelux countries (Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg), they replied that such a basis was "inadequate." Spaak and his neighbors wanted mutual aid that would start "automatically" in case of hostilities with Germany "or a state connected directly or indirectly with Germany's action." Toward better definition of the Bevin Gesture, they suggested a "regional organization" for Western Europe, within the framework of U.N., on the lines of the American hemisphere defense...