Agony Ahead

With the breakup of the Berlin Conference and renewed proof of Russia's implacable hold on East Germany, the focus of uncertainty in Europe shifted back to Paris--and to the familiar, nagging question: What will the French do about EDC, the European army project? Before leaving Berlin, Foreign Minister Georges Bidault told Secretary Dulles that he hoped to see the legislative gears turning by mid-March and that he hoped for ratification of EDC by mid-April. Not many in France were so optimistic.

Before Berlin, Bidault was asked what he would do if the Russians presented him with a clear bargain: peace in Indo-China if France would abandon EDC. Bidault replied sarcastically that he didn't expect to see cards like that placed on the table. "The Russians," he said, "never play anything but clubs." Now, however, that there was something else to wait for --the Geneva conference in April--anti-EDC voices were again heard in Paris. Their new refrain: France must not provoke the Russians by approving EDC so long as there is a chance of ending the Indo-China war at Geneva.

The Fears & Hesitations. In France, the opponents of EDC and the damners-with-faint-praise are motivated by a weird variety of fears and hesitations. Some despise and distrust Germany, and that overrides everything else; some (including Premier Joseph Laniel, who has made a career these past seven months of political survival) think of EDC as a dose of unpleasant medicine, to be stalled off as long as possible; some think that French sovereignty and pride outweigh considerations of security; some want to toy with the alternatives, or get more concessions--notably, German concessions on the Saar and U.S.-British guarantees to maintain troops in Continental Europe. Inside Laniel's Cabinet are Gaullists who are solidly against EDC. Most of EDC's support is in the center and moderate left. Yet a fortnight ago Jules ("The Lizard") Moch, a staunchly anti-Communist Socialist, gave the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee a thick, hostile report on EDC that amounted, as one commentator said, to "a dictionary of objections."

The Decibel Test. Listening to the loudest comment, observers might conclude that EDC hasn't a prayer. But the decibel level is not a fair test. Those who are for EDC are for it in a quiet resigned way: in a land so recently occupied, people do not cheer for German rearmament, but only acknowledge its necessity. A hunt for alternatives is on among those EDC opponents who accept a controlled German rearmament if only it could be achieved without any controls on France. Some might vote for EDC if the supranational clauses would not immediately be put into effect. Others spin variations on a plan of General Maxime Weygand's for an international but not supranational Defense Council of Europe, under NATO, to include not only the Germans, but the British and Scandinavians too. The difficulty in these plans is that most would require a renegotiation with the other five nations of EDC, and some would require such new demands on Germany that, though the French might accept, the Germans would not. This is why the U.S. officially refuses to talk of alternatives and insistently asks France not to prolong its agony.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.