Hope & History

The difference between news and his tory is only time. The news last week apparently brought little reason for cheer. Moslem and French blood mingled in the gutters of Algiers. In East Germany Volkspolizoi machine-gunned an official U.S. automobile. In Geneva, the 17-nation Disarmament Conference dragged on to ward deadlock, and in Luxembourg the six Common Market foreign ministers broke up bickering because France stubbornly opposed plans for West Europe's political integration. But in time, history might well conclude that all these were minor disturbances -- or even positive steps -- in one of the century's most important events : the emergence of Western Europe as a major, united power.

At Geneva, despite some signs and more talk of U.S. -British differences, the two nations actually worked in the closest unity; Britain's Lord Home was being at least as tough on Berlin as Secretary of State Dean Rusk. At Luxembourg, no one believed that De Gaulle or any other power could in the long run prevent West ern European unification. As a prominent politician once put it: "Europe takes three steps forward then one step back, but we arrive." And in Algeria the French army hit hard at the S.A.O., a fact that almost certainly meant the terrorist organization's death sentence.

Europe anticipates that after the Algerian problem is out of the way Charles de Gaulle will be harder, not easier, to deal with. He will in effect have energy to spare for his goal of making France pre dominant in Western Europe. But the other European nations prefer a De Gaulle obsessed with French grandeur in Europe to a De Gaulle single-mindedly concerned with a crippling war in Algeria. As Amsterdam's Het Parool put it: "The solution of the Algerian problem is a relief not only for France but for the West as a whole. It will provide France with the opportunity to fulfill her duties as a NATO ally. Before, she demanded a kind of place of honor in NATO, but was not able to provide the necessary troops France also wanted to be the leader of the Six. but had nothing to offer but pretensions. With Algeria out of the way, everything should be different."

Added the Times of London: "For France herself the cease-fire brings the hope of playing a fuller part--and, it may be hoped, a less touchy and anxious part--in Europe and the world."

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