The World: Europe: The British Are Coming!?*

IT was the same elegant ballroom in which Charles de Gaulle had twice scuttled British applications for entry into the Common Market. Appropriately, many of the journalists who had witnessed those historic pronouncements were among the 300 newsmen who gathered at the Elysée Palace one evening last week. Seated on gilt chairs with barricades of cameramen and TV crews behind them, they waited for the appearance of Britain's Prime Minister Edward Heath and France's President Georges Pompidou.

The conference was scheduled for 6 p.m., but the hour came and went and nothing happened. Some reporters wandered about the palace while others went out into the beautiful Elysée garden, which was covered with rich green umbrellas of chestnut trees in the final dazzle of bloom. A light, misty rain coated the grass and clung to the dark blue jackets of the Garde Républicaine. At 6:30, loudspeakers crackled that the two men would appear at 7. British journalists began to fret about some unexpected "difficulty." A French correspondent grumbled: "The general was always on time, even when he said no."

Opening the Way

Then, behind a procession of aides and bodyguards, came Heath and Pompidou, walking in step into the gilt and crystal glitter of the ballroom. Pompidou signaled Heath to precede him into the room. The two men seated themselves in Louis XIV armchairs on a raised dais, with Heath at the President's right.

"We are both aware that the questions we are debating come at an important moment in the history of our nations and in the history of Europe," said Pompidou, speaking without text or notes. "Many believed that Great Britain is not European and that it wanted to get into the Common Market only to destroy it," he explained in a disarmingly candid reference to the justification that De Gaulle had twice used for vetoing Britain's earlier application to join the European Economic Community. "Many others also believed that France was prepared to use all means of veto to prevent Great Britain from getting into the Common Market. Well, ladies and gentlemen," said Pompidou, now glancing at Heath, "tonight you see before you two men who are convinced that this is not the case." Then, in a convoluted manner, Pompidou added: "It would be unreasonable to think that an agreement cannot be reached between Britain and the Common Market in the talks beginning in June."

Ted Heath, who made his maiden speech in Parliament 21 years ago on the subject of European unity, responded: "I have long believed that Europe must grow steadily together in unity, and that Britain should be a part of that wider unity. I believe that only in this way can we secure the future peace of our Continent and end forever the quarrels which have brought such suffering upon our countries in the past."