Round 1 to the General

If most of Europe seemed angry at Charles de Gaulle last week, no one seemed to know quite what to do about him. Speaker after speaker at the European Parliament in Strasbourg ringingly condemned Charles de Gaulle's imperious thumbs down on British membership in the Common Market. As a result, declared Common Market Chairman Walter Hallstein, the Six have been plunged into their "first real crisis--a crisis of confidence." In European capitals from Bonn to Rome, France's Common Market partners spoke bravely of ganging up on De Gaulle, perhaps by blocking his plans for associating France's former African colonies with Europe, or even by boycotting French goods.

Empty Chair? But when the speeches were over, European parliamentarians speechlessly realized that there was almost no concrete action that they could take against le grand Charles. De Gaulle seemed to hold all the trumps. Some members of the other Common Market five had talked of giving France the "empty-chair" treatment, carrying on their efforts for European unity and Atlantic partnership without the French. Yet what purpose would it serve to exclude France from NATO councils? None at all. Its contributions to allied fighting strength are sufficiently meager--it is two divisions behind its commitments in Germany, it withholds its Mediterranean fleet from NATO, keeps most of its metropolitan territory out of the air warning system, and even prohibits foreign nuclear weapons on French soil. Still, sheer geography gives France a veto on NATO planning. Could France be ignored in the tariff discussions of the 40-odd members of GATT, or in OECD, the European economic coordinating group that grew out of the Marshall Plan? Hardly, since the economies of all Western European nations are intertwined with France's. The urgent French need to export food surpluses, and its booming market for other nations' industrial goods, are the stick and the carrot that have given the community much of its momentum.

Even Belgium's Paul-Henri Spaak, perhaps the most implacable foe of De Gaulle's plans for Europe, agreed last week that there was no general support for retaliatory measures against France. West Germany's Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard, who was in tears at Brussels when France blackballed Britain, went home breathing defiance of De Gaulle and threats to topple Konrad Adenauer. He got nowhere (see West Germany). And after all the oratory at Strasbourg, a "solemn protest" motion condemning De Gaulle's "domination" of Europe was defeated by a tie vote of 38-38--hardly a resounding gesture of defiance.

Personality Change. By their very lack of passion at the new realities, European statesmen proved that there is still a lot of life in deep-rooted nationalism, whether De Gaulle's or anyone else's. The Communists had found out the same thing in Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary and East Germany. There were differences: Russia had tried to impose a unity, and Western Europeans had hoped to evolve into a unity by democratic means and for mutual benefit. Western Europeans still insist that the idea of Europe will carry the day, but at the moment there is a new consciousness of one another's disparate tastes, talents and destinies.

The French, aware of the hostility of allies, were reassuring everybody that they were not proposing to go it alone. Foreign Minister Couve de Murville said: "It is not a question of freeing the European personality but of remaining inside the Atlantic Alliance." Even so, Europe's personality had undoubtedly undergone a change. Said one minister in Brussels last week: "For the present, only expect the things to be done quickly around here that are plainly good for all the six countries. It will be quite a while before we hear a minister in council say he is voting for anything for the good of the community as a whole."

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