NATIONAL AFFAIRS

FOREIGN RELATIONS Challenge & Response

An outrage!

The words were President Harry Truman's. He meant the Communist seizure of Hungary. It was no ill-considered, uncalculated outburst. The President had had a week to prepare his answer to Russia's challenge of the Truman Doctrine. Warned the President: the U.S. will not stand idly by.

Before the day was out, George Marshall struck at one of Russia's most sensitive nerves. At Harvard's commencement exercises, where he accepted an honorary doctorate of laws, the Secretary of State answered the Russian challenge by urging an economically integrated Europe. Europe must get together on its needs. Henceforth, U.S. help would be on a Europe-wide, not a nation-by-nation, basis.

Said Marshall: "Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world. . . . Such assistance must not be on a piecemeal basis as various crises develop.

"Any government that is willing to assist in the task of recovery will find full cooperation on the part of the U.S."

"With Both Hands"

"When the Marshall proposals were announced," said Ernie Bevin in Britain last week, "I grabbed them with both hands."

So did Europe.

To the French, Marshall's intimation that the U.S. was at last going to seek "a cure rather than a . . . palliative" for Europe's troubles was the best news since the Allies landed in Normandy. It mattered little that le plan Marshall was vague. "Today there is something new in the lives of Frenchmen," breathed President of the Republic Vincent Auriol.

As for the Russians, they seemed to be in a box, for once. If they joined Britain, France, and the rest of Europe in really working for a continental recovery plan, they would be conforming to U.S. initiative; if they stalled and sabotaged, the responsibility for a divided and impoverished Europe would fall on the Kremlin.

For three hours last week Bevin and British Ambassador Duff-Cooper sat in low armchairs overlooking the British Embassy gardens in Paris, comparing notes. Then Premier Paul Ramadier and dapper, London-tailored Foreign Minister Georges Bidault arrived with their experts. Eleven French and eleven Britons got their heads together over the veal, adjourned to the garden veranda later for whiskey, brandy, and more happy talk.

Bevin flew back to London two days later and [made] a memorable speech in the House of Commons. Pounding a dispatch box with his heavy hands, Bevin said: "The reply of the Soviet Government is awaited . . . [but] I shall not be a party to holding up the economic recovery of Europe by the finesse of procedure." The immediate problems of Europe were "food, coal, transport, houses, opportunities for a decent life."

All of these were brought into prospect by the Marshall suggestion. Europe had a chance to work out a blueprint of how the U.S. could save Europe whole--which would cost the U.S. much less than trying to save it piece by piece.

Pas de Pagaille!

The committees to study Europe's needs and resources under the "Marshall approach" got down to work this week in the Grand Palais, one of the few really ugly buildings in the center of Paris.

Coal was the central issue at Paris.

And coal meant the Ruhr and Germany.

Without Ruhr coal, and without the German industrial output which depends on Ruhr coal, the rest of Europe cannot recover. To help remedy that paralysis, the U.S. last week issued a new directive to Germany's occupation chief, General Lucius D. Clay, superseding Joint Chiefs of Staff Directive 1067 (which had directed the U.S. commander to take "no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany"). The new directive said: "An orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany." The U.S. suggested that the permissible level of industry in Western Germany be raised by boosting steel production from 5.8 to 12 million tons a year.

When they heard that, the French promptly raised the roof, almost threatened to sabotage the Paris conference.

The Communists hastened to aggravate these fears; L'Humanite cried: "Let French Mothers Again Tremble!" The British made difficulties too. They did not like a U.S. suggestion that their plans to socialize Ruhr mines be postponed.

Last week, it looked as though many Europeans were far ahead of their own leaders in understanding that it was more important to make the "Marshall approach" work than to keep Germany down. Said Henri-Albert Joinville, 46, a road repair man: "The Marshall plan was quite simple when it started and now the politicians are trying to make it complicated. It is still simple for me. We are in trouble. If we don't get help, there may be anarchy in France. Now let's get ahead.

Pour l'amour de Dieu, pas de pagaille!

[For God's sake, let's not mess around!]." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.