Reconciliation at Rambouillet

WESTERN EUROPE

Konrad Adenauer saw eye to hypnotic eye with Charles de Gaulle, but Ludwig Erhard from the start tried tostare le grand Charles down. He did not have a chance. When it came to the question of grain prices in the Common Market, Erhard held out for twelve months, but finally caved in. Anxious to share in the West's nuclear arsenal, der Dicke pinned his hopes on U.S. zeal for the multilateral force, only to have the Americans lose interest and leave the Germans out on a limb. Last week, as Erhard arrived in Paris for his latest meeting with France's leader, he could hope to be received with compassion, and even generosity.

The last time the two had met in Bonn, De Gaulle had pointedly kept Erhard waiting a quarter of an hour while he reminisced with Adenauer about the solidarity of the good old days. But now as Erhard's black Citroen pulled up before De Gaulle's 14th century chateau at Rambouillet, the German flag was smartly run up the crenelated tower looming over the courtyard, and there was a smiling Charles himself waiting with outstretched arms for the Chancellor. And in some six hours of talk that followed, De Gaulle was all paternal charm and magnanimity.

Did Erhard really want to launch some kind of political organization among Europe's Six, as he had been saying for months? Fine, said De Gaulle: let the Foreign Ministers get together on it this spring, and then maybe the heads of state can have a summit about it in the fall. Did Erhard really need some new overture on German reunification for home consumption in this election year, 1965? Well, said De Gaulle, the best way is still the French way--increasing contacts with Eastern Europe. But if it's important, France understands, and by all means will go along with anything the Germans can persuade the U.S. and Britain to initiate with Moscow. Defense? A touchy issue there is no need discussing now, since MLF is "in the refrigerator." France can afford to "wait, serene," as a French spokesman put it afterwards.

As a result, Rambouillet turned out to be a reconciliation of sorts. "The maximum that one could expect, the minimum that one could hope for," said one observer. It was a relaxed and relieved Erhard who disembarked back in Germany to proclaim: "This was a good encounter--there wasn't a single jarring note." Still, De Gaulle has a press conference scheduled for Feb. 4, and Erhard knows as well as anyone the general's penchant for pyrotechnics in these semiannual pronunciamentos. "Remember that I have my birthday on Feb. 4," Erhard cracked to his host before leaving. "I don't want to have any unpleasant surprises that day."

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