Council

The Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization met in regular ministerial session in Paris on December 17 and 18, 1954, under the chairmanship of Stephanos Stephanopoulos, Foreign Minister of Greece. One of the principal items considered by the Council was the annual review of the military position of NATO, which had been prepared by the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (SACEUR, Gruenther) and by the Military Committee at its meetings in Washington in November and in Paris immediately preceding the Council meeting. According to press reports, the review showed that defensive rearmament of NATO was virtually completed so far as conventional armaments were concerned. It was reported that SACEUR and the Military Committee recommended that only the air arm of NATO defenses be substantially augmented in 1955, and that even the increases recommended in this regard represented a realization in 1955 of the goals set for 1954 which had not been met. Ground forces in 1954 were said to have been reduced by the equivalent of two divisions by the reduction in periods of conscription in Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands, the failure of Norway to increase its conscription period and the transfer of French units to north Africa; a reported two percent increase in NATO naval forces was recommended for 1955. Total defense expenditures of European NATO members in 1954 were reported to have fallen 2.4 percent below the 1953 level; the eleven European members were reported to have spent $10,865 million in 1954 as compared with $11,133 million in 1953.