No. 12

In a year and a half, East and West had pelted each other with eleven formal diplomatic notes on one subject: unification of Germany. From Washington, Paris and London last week came note No. 12--the shortest and the best so far. It was a crisp, polite invitation to the Soviet Foreign Minister to meet with his Big Three opposite numbers to seek "a solution of the German and Austrian problems," and it got right down to the brass tacks of time (Oct. 15) and place (Lugano, Switzerland). The note did not try to meet attacks made in previous Soviet notes, and it made no attack on Soviet acts or motives.

The document had the odd quality of pleasing just about everyone on the Western side. Paris' leftist Combat nicknamed it "La Note Dior," because it was short and had style. Le Monde applauded the absence of "polemics, which give the Soviets the nourishment they need for their propaganda." In Germany, giving his approval, Konrad Adenauer said that it was he who suggested writing the note. And, though it was nicely timed to give Adenauer a last-minute boost for the Western German elections (see below), Adenauer's political enemies, the German Socialists, said they liked it too.

The likelihood was that No. 12 would propel the world no closer to an acceptable settlement for Germany than Nos. 1 through 11 had done. But it neatly left the Kremlin little room to dodge in. Now, said the London Times, there will be "no doubt by whose wish it will be if the four-power conference on Germany does not now take place."

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