Raised to the Fourth Power

The Big Three became a Big Four last week, and France became one of Europe's four ruling powers. Simultaneously, Washington, London and Moscow announced that France had been added to the European Advisory Commission (the U.S., Britain, Russia) established a year ago to consider "the treatment to be accorded [Germany]." Said the Big Three: "Conscious ... of the part France will inevitably play in maintaining the future peace of Europe . . . the Provisional Government of the French Republic [is invited] to full [E.A.C.] membership." (Russia's Ambassador to France, Alexander E. Bogomolov, informed French Foreign Commissioner Georges Bidault that it was Russia who had proposed inviting France into the European Advisory Commission.)

The news reached France shortly after Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whose secret plan to be in Paris on the 26th anniversary of Armistice Day had leaked to all & sundry. But the Prime Minister brushed aside fears for his life. Dressed in an Air Marshal's blue uniform, he rode with General Charles de Gaulle through shouting crowds, laid a wreath at the Unknown Soldier's monument, bowed in silence at Marshal Foch's tomb, made a speech (in original Churchill French) to the shouting Parisians. High point: "We have had differences in the recent troubled years, but I am sure you should all rally around him [General de Gaulle]." Long, Serious Talks. The Prime Minister and the General retired for some 'long serious talking, probably about General de Gaulle's difficulties in bringing order and justice to a country still torn between the Right and the Left, certainly about the Allies' intentions to arm France so that she can participate in the final crushing of Germany.

The Big Fourth news obscured some of the political drama and meaning implicit in Churchill's presence in Paris. Except for a brief dash to Normandy shortly after the invasion, Churchill had not been in France since 1940. Then, at the climax of France's collapse before the German armies, he had swooped in by plane to reverse centuries of British isolationist policy toward Europe by offering the disintegrating nation parliamentary Union Now with Britain.

This time there was no question of offering union to General de Gaulle. But implied in Churchill's visit was Britain's plan for a power bloc of western European countries (TIME, Nov. 13), proposed a year ago by South Africa's Prime Minister Jan Christian Smuts, energetically pushed since then by Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. The London Times had argued: "[The West Bloc] is a necessary complement to the system of security which Soviet Russia ... is building up in eastern Europe. Both for Britain and western Europe [it] represents a departure from tradition. . . . But for both it has become a necessity of the first order."

Russia was not known to be against the bloc. In London a high Russian official had nodded approval: "Geography and economic interest dictate bloc formation." Liberated Belgium favored the bloc. The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark might come in once they had been freed. But France was the indispensable partner.

Then Something Happened. The day that Prime Minister Churchill arrived, General de Gaulle hastily told the press that there was no question of separating any section of Europe from any other part. For the present a West Bloc was out. "Diplomatic circles," reported New York Times Correspondent Harold Callender, "said that the group scheme was dead, at least for the present."

Behind France's sudden apathy toward a West Bloc might be the sudden activity of Russia's Ambassador Bogomolov. He had questioned the French Government, frowned on the idea of including The Netherlands, which had not recognized the Soviet Government until 1942. The impression spread in France that Russia now frowned on the whole business.

For a while this frown might be effective. But in the very nature of the West Bloc idea--a grouping of western powers as a counterpoise to the group Russia was organizing in eastern Europe--it seemed that the more Russia. frowned the more likely it was that sooner or later a West Bloc would be formed. Meanwhile, political tact was the order of the day.

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