Without Program

Last week, while the arms-laden Exilona sailed past them into nearby Naples Bay, 100 Christian Democrats of 15 nations met in the mountainous coastal town of Sorrento, to debate the political defense of Western Europe. Some of the delegates, led by the Italians, hoped to arrive at more definite conclusions than former meetings had achieved. Particularly, they hoped for Christian Democratic agreement on full admission of Western Germany to the political and military efforts of Europe's non-Communist nations.

The unofficial representatives of France's Mouvement Republicain Populaire held out firmly against full collaboration with Western Germany. Said one French delegate: "If all Germans were Christian Democrats we might feel differently."

On the last day of the congress, Italy's Premier Alcide de Gasperi made a final effort to break the deadlock, pleaded in earnest but halting French. "I appeal to our French and German friends: let your pace be fast and your vision wide." Then, switching to more fluent German, he added, "We must subordinate even our elections and the destinies of our Demo-christian parties to attaining this union." Despite De Gasperi's urgings, the congress wound up with only a vague, if unanimous, resolution declaring Christian Democracy's "unshakeable will to fight Communism in union . . . with all the free world" and its "hope that at the next session of the European Assembly all countries will be admitted . . ."

After three days of parlaying, Europe's Christian Democrats, still opposed to Communism, had made slight progress in laying down a program to fight it.

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