EUROPE'S SKIN-DEEP UNITY

...Unity of purpose, objectives, and policy still has to be found in Europe—and I mean the part of it called "Western" in postwar terminology...

...They take it for granted that American pre-eminence in the world is here to stay and that no community of nations would have a chance of survival unless it were built around the Atlantic...

...The constant rejection by American leaders of any opportunity to talk with Soviet leaders has been interpreted in many quarters as a refusal to take into account the opinion of the masses, who favor positive action for peace...

...Two—The United States must state quite clearly that the Cold War is not a policy per se, and that every possible channel of negotiation with the Soviet Government is and will remain open...

...Its most prominent exponent, Etienne Gilson, a member of the French Academy, wrote recently that the neutrality of Europe would be in the best interests of the United States, since it would afford a third force in the world and contribute to a lessening of the East-West tension...

...Such a program should be built not on negative or defensive lines, but with a full realization of the local conditions and the interests of the people involved...

...III After months of bickering between French and British staff officers over the best way to defend Europe—the British insisting on England's being the platform, and the French demanding that France and North Africa be taken into account—the issue may soon be resolved with the appointment of an American commander-in-chief who will direct operations from Washington...

...A split within the French delegation, with one side supported by the Belgian Socialist leader, Paul-Henri Spaak, was sufficient to avoid a major break between the "Europe Now or Else" advocates and the "Go Slow" partisans...

...Great expectations had been raised by that session...

...Lodge of Massachusetts, calls on the European countries to reduce their dollar purchases as much as possible so that "the burden of European recovery on the American taxpayer" shall be minimized, which means that Europe must try to support itself, even at the cost of discrimination...

...Irritation has been caused also by the support of the American Government of such men as Korea's Syngman Rhee and Indo-China's Emperor Bao Dai, who has spent more time in Europe gambling in the swank casinos than in his country since he was reinstated as the ruler of Vietnam...

...While the feeling was unnecessarily unfriendly, it expressed the view of many here, who analyzed the position of the State Department in Asia...

...Washington's talk about a "preventive war", although rejected as expressing no official policy, provoked sinister echoes in Europe...

...Nevertheless, Strasbourg was an utter failure since it solved no major problem and made no real advance toward a common concept of Europe...

...When Newsweek reported that the United States was "engaged in a new diplomatic action to force the French Government's hand in giving more independence to Emperor Bao-Dai," a leading newspaper in Paris wrote: "Let our American colleague be sure that we would think of nothing better than the return of Bao Dai among his people, where he could justify, by independent action, the confidence thrust upon him...

...The fact that America does not choose its friends better has given support to the charge that Washington is now going all-out in a "tough policy...

...Moreover, the British find some contradiction in the position of the United States concerning dollar expenditures in Marshall Plan countries...

...It should be made clear, once and for all, that North and South Koreans, in every part of the world, will not have to die for a Syngman Rhee...

...No one can say with absolute certainty what Europe would choose as an alternative policy...

...It would be a bitter victory, indeed, for America if it had to go down in history as a nation of "aggressors of peace...

...But the strong feeling persists that Washington is leading the world down a dangerous path—one which has not been explored completely by the American guides themselves...

...But so far, only problems have been united...

...This feeling, now current in intellectual circles, is that Europe must have no part in the cold or hot war between America and Russia...

...Things got so hot at one point that the French Socialist leader, Andre Philip, came out with a proposal that Europe had to be united then and there, with the British and Scandinavian countries if possible, without them if necessary...

...A cartoonist has represented Secretary of State Acheson as a man walking on a tight rope, trembling with the fear of a crash landing, shouting to a group of European leaders: "Let's all be tough, boys...

...Four—-A bold, progressive plan for economic, social, and political reform is needed for the Far East and other parts of the world now threatened with Communist expansion...

...The Marshall Plan, for instance, has managed to put under the same roof a variety of nations with no other link than the need for reconstruction and the dislike of Communism...

...This seemed all the more absurd because a White Paper had just been issued in Washington, condemning the Chiang Kai-shek regime in no uncertain terms...

...A few days ago, while in London, I found the Socialist leaders much concerned over the prospect of a slower trend toward social progress because of defense efforts...

...In other words, Congress asked Europe to make no discrimination, even if they must buy with dollars...

...But, from the talks I have had with many people in several European countries in the last few months, it can safely be said that the majority opinion would wish the acceptance of a program along these lines: One—The United States should pay more attention to the aspirations and needs of Europe as a major force in the world—a force which can match either of the big American and Russian empires in population and coal and steel production— not to mention history and experience...

...Yet, notes that influential weekly, life in Washington is fought with "sudden transformations which give American politics, especially under Mr...

...It has never been understood here why, during the consideration of the problem of Chinese representation in the United Nations, the American Government refused to settle for the French compromise calling for the admittance of the Peking delegates—whose absence was then causing a Russian boycott at UN—without granting the Communist regime U. S. diplomatic recognition...

...Since they had no real desire to join anyway, they said, "So sorry...

...Europe today has a skin-deep appearance of unity, brought about by various external factors such as the fear of war and the need for economic help from America...

...But most people have voluntarily chosen to throw their lot with America, for better or for worse...

...Truman, a uniquely unpredictable and exhilarating quality...

...They were then faced with acceptance of the principle of the Schuman Plan or non-participation in the negotiations...

...The German Social-Democrats had been against the plan all along, since they believed that no such scheme would be free from cartel deals, unless the heavy industries of Germany were socialized...

...They find the rearmament race too hot for them...

...II A few weeks before the Strasbourg meeting, the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, had made his bold proposal to merge the steel and coal production of Western Europe...

...Many an American visitor has put this question to me in various forms, mostly with a sincere desire to understand a puzzling problem of the utmost urgency...

...Tom Con-nally of Texas, declared it the sense of Congress "that no recipient government shall discriminate by license, quotas, or otherwise, against United States nationals or business interests...

...The British newspaper was referring to the "Johnson incident," but obviously more examples could be produced to show that Europe resents the fact that in America, matters of the utmost importance in defense and foreign affairs have to be dragged through all the quibbles and family quarrels of domestic politics...

...Precautions justifiable in the defense against subversive elements should not overshadow the rights of man...

...It was held out as a shining example of European unity—the climax of a series of efforts which had begun in 1945, with the creation of a myth called "Benelux...

...All these disagreements and contradictions, to which has been added a growing uneasiness over the g«n-eral world situation, have produced only one common trend: the neutrality attitude, which is not dominant in Europe but which can be traced in practically all countries, especially Germany and France...

...But the Strasbourg meeting revealed a serious clash between two tendencies, a clash which was deep enough to wipe out most of the progress so far made toward unity by the various European movements...

...During the bitter days of the early part of the Korean campaign, nasty cracks were made...

...which entails the sacrifice of democratic principles and values at home and abroad...

...Durand was that paper's correspondent in Washington and New York for several years...

...But it is perhaps on the borderline between economic necessity and military factors that clashes have been most evident in the past months among the nations of Europe...

...The majority opinion, however, is not satisfied with neutrality...

...The European concept has become too small for practical politicians...

...Obviously, the majority cannot afford rearmament on a scale compatible with the "lukewarm war" and, at the same time, finish the job of recovery and self-support needed before the end of the Marshall Plan in 1952...

...In the same breath, Congress passed two amendments in the Foreign Aid Authorization Act, which clearly defeat each other...

...Germany's first enthusiasm cooled gradually as the Bonn Government got a greater degree of sovereignty, including the right to raise the level of steel production...

...As a world leader, America has laid herself open to criticism, directed at many facts of what has been called her "volatile policy...

...Only some highly-trained minds can see a chance of success in Acheson's "calculated risk" policy, while the common man refuses to accept the theory that no good can ever be done by talking with the Russians...

...Two battles were fought...

...No doubt some achievements have been made toward reunion...

...There are no more jokes in that vein now, but the feeling has persisted that American policy in the Far East is based on complete ignorance of the facts of the situation and a persistent determination to back the wrong horses...

...Washington should refrain from discouraging, openly and otherwise, the honest attempts made by sincere "neutrals" to seek an arrangement between East and West...

...Some think it is too late now...

...The other battle was fought between the delegates who were all-out for federalism and those who favored the "functional" approach, or cooperation through governmental channels...

...Five— The United States Government must avoid maintaining a state of "war hysteria" in order to get Congress to act on rearmament, or get the world in the right pitch for the "touch policy...

...some wonder how Europe could manage to do such a thing alone when the need for American economic help is so great and the fear of Russian aggression so permanent...

...Politically, Western Europe has not yet become a reality...

...This was apparent during the last meeting of the Council of Europe at Strasbourg this summer...

...The British Socialists, led by Hugh Dalton, had turned thumbs down on any attempts at federalism...

...Surely, they felt, if France, Germany, and England could merge their heavy industries with, as it were, the blessing of Uncle Sam, there would be no limit to Europe's advance toward economic unity and political stability...

...And Pearl Buck can be just as fatal as Pearl Harbor...

...But even now the governments concerned find it difficult to reconcile the economic and financial side of rearmament with the military responsibility involved...

...Fascist regimes may be—though I doubt it— a match for Communist attempts from the outside: but they surely pave the way for Communist gains from within...

...Bickering started when the British complained that they had not been informed in time—which was correct...

...IV "The method and matter of United States defense and diplomacy," wrote the London Economist recently, "are now decisive in every capital of the world...

...America cannot afford to lose sight of democracy, of which it is the strongest pillar, in the blind hatred of everything "Red...

...Commenting on Washington's refusal to have anything to do with the Chinese Communist regime, a British diplomat said to the French Ambassador, in London: "The trouble with our friends is that they learn everything from the best-sellers...

...Three—The United States should disassociate herself from discredited regimes and leaders and let the world know that it will not restrict its support to such regimes and leaders prepared to maneuver for position on the strength of a purely anti-Communist platform and record...

...The answer lies as much with the relationship between the Old World and the United States as it does with conditions within Europe itself...

...The other amendment, sponsored by Sen...

...To many, this seemed the answer to an economic problem long fought over in Europe...

...One raged between those who would emphasize the Consultative AssemLIONEL DURAND, foreign editor of Paris Presse, roams Europe constantly for the second largest daily in the French capital...

...It has been almost six months now since the proposal was put forward...

...bly, stemming from popular representation, and supporters of the Council of Ministers, stemming from governments...

...its chances of coming to life are less tangible now than they were at the outset...

...England and Western Germany, with a sizeable trade with Eastern Europe, find it difficult now to keep their traditional markets as Washington exerts pressure against shipment of any "strategic" product beyond the Iron Curtain...

...One, proposed by Sen...

...we'll know now if they can swim...

...Yet, some time ago an official Marshall Plan report stressed that Western Europe should trade with the East in order to achieve self-dependence...

...Typical was this one, heard in London: "We know that the Americans can't fight...

...Although a common strategic concept has been created, which takes for granted that Europe must be defended on the Elbe, the defense of the countries involved in that geographical commitment is hardly beginning to change from blueprint to reality...

...Recently, the French Institute of Public Opinion, a sort of Gallic Gallup, asked a number of people to name the world celebrity with whom they would rather speak for one hour, if they had the chance, with this result: 33% of the men said Stalin, de Gaulle got 25%, while Truman came out with 18...

...It would be untrue to say that most people think Acheson wrong...

...But dissatisfaction on that score is probably the most important factor in the lack of true progress toward European unity...