  The study of near--threshold meson production in pp and pd collisions
involving polarized beams and polarized targets offers the rare opportunity to
gain insight into short--range features of the nucleon--nucleon interaction.
The Cooler Synchrotron COSY at FZ--J\"ulich is a unique environment to perform
such studies. Measurements of polarization observables require a cylindrically
symmetrical detector, capable to measure the momenta and the directions of
outgoing charged hadrons. The wide energy range of COSY leads to momenta of
outgoing protons to be detected in a single meson production reaction between
300 and 2500 MeV/c. Scattering angles of protons to be covered extend to about
$45^{\circ}$ in the laboratory system. An azimuthal angular coverage of the
device around 98% seems technically achievable. The required magnetic
spectrometer could consist of a superconducting toroid, providing fields around
3 T.
