While reliable reports placed Russian armed strength in Europe at 120 divisions last week, the "free nations" remained sharply divided on plans for their defense. Stumbling block in the recent foreign minister's conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel was the role that Western Germany should play in the unification and defense of the Atlantic Community.

Interviewed for their ideas on this problem, several members of the faculty, all experts in their fields, took a position somewhat at odds with the American point of view and generally closer to the French stand put forward by Foreign Minister Robert Schuman at the New Work talks.

While Secretary of State Dean Acheson called for the immediate creation of West German divisions to be integrated in an overall Western force, Schuman argued that German remilitarization should only take place following the economic integration of the German economy into that of Europe. This process is now only in its formative stage.

Schuman found sympathizers on the faculty. Carl J. Friedrich, professor of Government and former political advisor to General Lucius Clay in Germany, said that immediate rearmament of Germany would be a "major blunder." There are many reasons for this, but the main one is that rearmament now would promote "the most unreliable elements in Germany," while weakening those political elements we (the U.S.) depend on most heavily, Friedrich maintained.

Torning present discusson of German rearmament "premature," McGeorge Bundy, lecturer in Government, summed up his views on the subject as follows:

"There is a great deal of rearming to be done in Western Europe and in the United States, and Germany is not the most appropriate place to begin. Until we have a stronger force in Europe, until there is appreciably greater progress in the integration of Western European defenses and implementation of the Schuman plan, we can do better to rearm elsewhere than in Germany."

William L. Langer '15, Coolidge Professor of History and former assistant for intelligence to the Secretary of State, takes a more compromising view. He feels that rearmament should go along with development of the Schuman Plan proposals.

A program of this sort would be a "reasonably safe gamble," Langer said, noting that there is always a chance that such a "calculated risk" might backfire as did our support of the Nationalists in China.

Corps "Made" Hitier

Because of the complicated technological skills involved in developing any modern fighting force, the West would have no choice but to enlist the aid of the Prussian officer corps in the reestablishment of any kind of German force, Friedrich said. It is this elite group, however, more than any other, which was responsible for Hitler. The political effect of putting power into the hands of these men again would far outweigh any purely military advantages of German remilitarization, Friedrich continued.

In Germany, the outcome of such a move would be to undo our post-war policy of impressing on the German population that is was "militarism more than anything else that was the crux of the recent German misfortune," Friedrich argued. In this regard, he added, it is significant that the results of a recent poll showed that the people of western Germany were against the formation of a German army.

Were the authoritarian officer corps to regain ascendency in Germany, Friedrich continued, this group would be put in a unique position of being able to play the East and West off against one another.

Reappearance of German soldiers would have a devastating psychological effect in Europe, especially in France. This is a fact which Russian propagandists would not ignore, Friedrich said. To discuss such an explosive topic as German rearmament now is needlessly risky anyway, because it will be some time before our industrial plant can fill even our own demand for arms, he pointed out.

Another compelling argument against German rearmament is that the present constitution of the West German Republic has a section specifically outlawing any form of compulsory military training, Friedrich said. He added that the process of constitutional amendment is slow in Germany and the German people would not now change this part of the Constitution. Nor is there any prospect for raising a sizeable force of volunteers, he claimed.

Formation of a politically and economically unified Europe is the only hope of the West, Friedrich believes. It is only after this is accomplished that it will be advisable to incorporate German manpower into the ranks of a Western defense force. Without Western Germany, Europe is not secure, he said, but German manpower and skills can best be used in fields other than military.