Tortured Mind

For four days and nights France's painful dialogue with itself sputtered and droned in the public amphitheater of parliament. The National Assembly, after months of deliberately avoiding a decision, was being asked to hint--timidly and tentatively--whether it will vote for or against the six-nation European Army and German rearmament when the real showdown comes early next year.

From the crescents of red plush seats, Deputy after Deputy went to the rostrum to speak the doubts of a nation too weak to defend itself, too proud to acknowledge its weakness even to itself, too fearful to heal it with an arrangement which permits Germany to rearm. As usual, the men on the extreme right, the Gaullists, and those on the extreme left, the Communists, rose in unequivocal opposition. But the bulk of France's parliament formed into a walking, talking tapestry of the confusion that threads through all France's social, religious and party lines.

Three Times in 70 Years. Hunched, acerbic ex-Premier Edouard Daladier rose from the benches of the moderate Radical Party. "If Germany prefers the European Army," he cried, "it is because she has the certainty of establishing her hegemony over Mitteleuropa, reconstituted by our efforts . . . The Russian soldier has never set boot on French soil since the duel which opposed Czar Alexander to the Emperor Napoleon. The German soldier has invaded it three times in 70 years." This line so pleased the Communists in the Assembly that, for the time being at least, they stopped calling Daladier "The Man of Munich."

But Rene Mayer, another ex-Premier, also spoke for the Radicals. "To those who say we are going to create a German Europe, I reply: If we turn our back, Europe will still exist. It will be no more or no less German . . . If we admit that [France] is not strong enough to carry on a European policy, how would she be better able to follow a policy of isolation . . .? To overthrow a foreign policy without having any alternative policy to offer would be not only grave, it would be criminal."

Defense Requires Depth. In the wings, ailing Foreign Minister Georges Bidault, who suffers from liver trouble, stayed up all one night to prepare his own climactic speech for the occasion. He hoped France's deputies would at least approve the European Army en principe so that he and Premier Laniel would have something to take with them to the Big Three meeting at Bermuda on Dec. 4. Preparing for the speech, Bidault fortified himself with energy pills.

Late on the fourth day of debate, he took the rostrum with a thick manuscript. Haltingly, fuzzily, he began to speak. "The question arises," said he. "whether German rearmament can really be avoided . . . The line of defense should be pushed as far to the east as possible. The defense of Europe . . . requires great depth. This depth can be obtained only by carrying the line of defense as far as is possible--that is to say, by including Germany."

The pale Foreign Minister faltered badly before he was a quarter through his speech. The chairman asked him to speak up. "Willingly," Bidault croaked, but he faltered even more. Mercifully, a Deputy proposed adjournment, and Bidault, close to collapse, was helped from the chamber.

Bidault's speech, the rest of which was read to the Deputies by Deputy Foreign Minister Maurice Schumann, sought one important stipulation from the U.S. and Britain. At the Bermuda Conference, said Bidault, France will pressure the Americans and British for "precise assurances" that they will keep their troops on the European mainland. But Bidault, ordered to rest completely for 48 hours, retreated gloomily from the scene, his climactic effort a failure. Almost with relief, French politicians grasped at one more chance for delay, put off a vote until this week. In the end the Assembly was expected to approve EDC--in principle--but the parliamentary eagerness to avert decision was at least as eloquent as any vote would be.

In Belgium too. EDC was debated last week. Socialist Paul-Henri Spaak, one of Europe's most ardent champions of unity, threw all his oratory into the argument. "Could we ask young Belgians to defend Europe on the Elbe." he asked, "while the Germans stayed home?" The chamber was half empty during the debate, for Belgium has apparently already made up its mind: to ratify.

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