A Glancing Blow

It was not the final blackball, but it was the closest thing to it. Assembled in Luxembourg's new 23-story Centre Europeen were the members of the Common Market's Council of Ministers, ready for the first official talks on Britain's application for membership. Many feared that France might deliver the coup de grace right then and there, ending Britain's hopes of gaining entry any time in the near future. What came was a glancing blow that was calculated to prove just as fatal in the end.

Unlike De Gaulle's reaction to Britain's first bid in 1963, French Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville did not flatly veto British membership. But before British entry could be considered, Couve said, Britain must first of all solve all its balance of payments problems and give up sterling's role as an international currency backed by a gold reserve. The pound, said Couve, must again become "a national currency like other national currencies, not subject to the uncertainties that it has known for the past 50 years." Couve then attained a new pinnacle in diplomatic doubletalk by adding that British entry "will be possible only when it is effectively possible."

France's five Common Market partners--all of whom publicly support British membership--tried unsuccessfully to soften the French position, but they failed. Flying to London for three days of talks with Prime Minister Wilson, West Germany's Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger offered little solace. "It would be no use banging the table," he said. "Anyone who knows President de Gaulle will understand that this would produce the opposite effect. The only way is to try to convince the French by intellectual arguments, and hope that the overwhelming weight of European public opinion will make them change their position."

As for Charles de Gaulle, who is not known for passing out bouquets to subordinates, he met with his Cabinet at midweek and praised Couve's Luxembourg performance. It had been, said the general, "efficacious."

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