Nato

was ten years ago that we met in Washington to sign the North Atlantic Treaty. The occasion was a solemn one as befitted its importance. The participants considered, rightly, that a milestone had been reached in the search for security by collective action and through the acceptance of collective obligar tions and responsibilities. It was the culmination of many months of preparation. In that work Canada had played a significant part; particularly by emphasizing the importance of putting something in the treaty which would underline the nonmilitary character and functions of what some others considered to be merely a military alliance. Hence Article II. It was the head of the Canadian government, also, who had first stated that the need for some regional security association had arisen because of the failure of the UN to provide that collective security to its members which the charter had envisaged but the cold war had frustrated. Obviously NATO was only a second best. Yet the aggression against Czechoslovakia had made it clear that some such second best was essential. Mr. St.-Laurent, speaking at the UN Assembly in 1947 as Canadian representative first gave expression to this necessity for something like NATO when he said

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