A Sense of Urgency

One obvious reason why the Russians had trumped up the Berlin crisis was because EGA was already a going concern. Last week EGA Administrator Paul Hoffman left for Paris. His mission was to see that EGA worked better still.

The Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), in particular, was not performing as well as Administrator Hoffman would like. It was staffed by civil servants who had to refer every decision back to their governments. When it came to cracking down on their own countries' needs, individuals on OEEC's committees could never forget their nationalities. In an Embassy press conference, Hoffman told reporters: "I don't think we have yet seen evidence of the coordination necessary for success. The European nations still have a long way to go."

What was needed, said Hoffman, was "a sense of urgency." If EGA was to get sympathetic hearing from Congress next year, it must have concrete results to show.

No Plot. Hoffman spoke softly. But his voice carried clearly across the Seine to the Hotel de Tabac, where an OEEC committee had been wrangling over a plan to loosen Europe's currency restrictions. Quickly, the committee reached a tentative agreement. If the details could be successfully worked out and agreed on, the plan would permit Western Europe's nations to buy more easily from each other, thereby relieving some of the strain on the U.S. economy.

Hoffman briskly nailed down the Communists' long-standing charge that ECA was a U.S. plot to divide Europe, by urging "the greatest possible stimulation of trade" between Western and Eastern Europe (except for military items). He underlined his point by allotting ECA dollar credits for purchases in Czechoslovakia and Finland. Asked about Polish coal and Yugoslav lumber, Hoffman answered: "We want you to buy in Europe, whether or not it's behind the Iron Curtain."

Old Frame. Then Hoffman sat down to drive his points home to the men who could act on them. Britain was represented by Sir Stafford Cripps, Belgium by Premier Paul-Henri Spaak (who is also OEEC chairman), the other Marshall Plan countries by men of cabinet or ambassadorial rank. The U.S. people, Hoffman told them, expected the European nations to carry out their pledges of joint action. He asked for a coordinated, four-year master plan. Said Hoffman: "Each participating nation must face up to readjustments . . . These readjustments cannot be made along the old separatist lines." European recovery "cannot be set in the frame of an old picture or traced on an old design." Hoffman observed afterward: "They all said 'yes' except one or two, who said 'yes, but—.' "

One of those who interposed a "yes, but—" was Britain's Cripps. Cripps objected that changes must come slowly. Hoffman was blunt. Said he grimly: "I told them they'd have to hang together or they would hang separately."