ON THE WORLD SCENE

ANOTHER VON HABSBURG SPEAKS OUT; WHICH WAY THE WEU?; OLYMPICS DIVIDE SOVIETS AND EAST EUROPEANS

With Mr. Reagan robustly returned to a second four-year term, the prospects of improved Soviet-American relations appear remote. Moscow is presently in no mood to concretely negotiate arms reduction talks. Furthermore, the Kremlin is moving to militarily prop up its Central American surrogate, Nicaragua, which has had difficulty fending off the attacks of the U.S. ­supported "contra" forces.

The Managua regime has "cried wolf" once again by putting the entire nation on military alert against an alleged U.S. attack. While such an assault is extremely remote, it nevertheless shows that the United States and the Soviet Union are both "upping the ante." Neither superpower believes it can afford to back down.

The prospect of reduced East-West tensions, therefore, are fading fast. This puts the nations of Western Europe in an increasingly uncomfortable position. It also encourages them in their desire for greater cooperation both within Western Europe and between the Western and Eastern halves of the continent. Recently, for example, the heads-of-state of France and West Germany held top-level talks in Paris, as reported in the November 7 issue of the TIMES of London:

France and West Germany should serve as the driving forces behind the construction of a stronger Europe, with view to opening the east-west dialogue, President Mitterrand and President Richard von Weizsaecker agreed here at the beginning of a five­ day official visit to France by the West German President. Speaking at a banquet given in Herr von Weizsaecker's honour...M. Mitterrand said: "Free and strong, our [European]Community will be able to conduct a dialogue with the other part of Europe...." Noting the special national and family ties between the West Germans and the Germans in East Germany, Herr von Weizsaecker said in reply: "They are and remain like us, Europeans. That is why we are seeking an entente between East and West. That is why we desire a peace which would enable us to overcome the divisions within Europe."

The goal of a united Europe remains fixed in the focus of the von Habsburg family, not only Dr. Otto von Habsburg, but his 23-year-old son, the Archduke Karl von Habsburg. Like his father, Karl von Habsburg is active in the promotion of a united Europe, serving as a member of the board of the International Pan-European Movement. He travels widely and lectures frequently. On September 25, he was in Pennsylvania, delivering addresses at York College of Pennsylvania and Elizabethtown College. Mr. Jim Rosenthal, pastor of our Harrisburg church, attended the afternoon lecture at York College, and church member Herbert N. Witmer attended the evening session at Elizabethtown. They were kind enough to send us newspaper reports of the speeches as well as, in Mr. Witmer's case, a transcript of an enlightening question-and-answer session.

First off we have a summation of Archduke Karl's York College address as presented in the September 26 issue of THE PATRIOT of Harrisburg. One can readily see that he is a "chip off the old block." Not only his message but his very words are virtually identical to his father's.

A "United States of Europe" could be the world's third great power, an Austrian archduke said yesterday during a visit here. Archduke Karl von Habsburg, youngest board member of the International Pan-European Movement and an officer in the Austrian army, spoke at York College of Pennsylvania on efforts to form a combined Europe. "Today, 200 million Americans are protecting 470 million Europeans from 250 million Russians," he said. "Combined, we could do it ourselves."

Habsburg, grandson of Emperor Karl I of Austria-Hungary and son of Otto von Habsburg, a member of the European Parliament, said he grew up in a family where European politics was the main topic of conversation. "From the time was little boy I heard only about politics, and I have been active in politics since the age of 12," he said. The Pan-European Movement began in 1923, was stalled by World War II, and had a revival in the early 1950s with a plan to integrate the coal and steel industries of Western Europe, Habsburg said. This led to the European Economic Community... [and] to the European Parliament....

The next few years [said the Archduke] will see the introduction of a European passport, a European driver's license, a uniform voting system, common guidelines for protection of the environment and the use of energy and other natural resources, the coordination of school certificates and educational degrees, and a common system of armaments, he said....

"We seek a great Europe, and people now living behind the Iron Curtain are just as much Europeans as we are. Colonization should end in Europe, just as it has in Africa and other parts of the world."

As his father concluded in his addresses at Ambassador College and in Los Angeles last year, Archduke Karl also stressed, regarding the quest of a united Europe: "We have passed the point of no return."

After the hour-long presentation in Elizabethtown, Archduke Karl fielded questions from the general audience (about 250 people of all ages). Afterwards, according to Mr. Witmer, the Archduke remained to answer questions privately from a dozen or so persons. The following are some of the questions Mr. Witmer and others asked of the very outspoken Archduke:

Q. "Do you see Franz Josef Strauss often...?"

A. "Well I don't see him often.... When we talk about politics head to head, he's brilliant. I don't mind that but otherwise he's too blustery."

Q. "You can look back through history many centuries ago and know that Charles V was

your great-great-great-great grandfather. Does that do something to your everyday thinking?"

A. "I am descended from him through the Madeirian Line, but no — I feel more empathy toward my Grandfather Karl I, who was the last Emperor of Austria. Incidentally, my Grandmother Zita is still living. She is 93 years old, totally blind, but she has a sharp clear mind. She has a staff of advisors who keep her up-to­date on the latest world news. You can sit down with her and carry on conversations about what is happening in the world today and she will know everything you're talking about."

Q. "Do you feel the monarchy will ever be restored to Austria?" (Just then an elderly lady standing beside me nudged me and said: "you don't mean that question, do you?!" The Archduke did not mind it.)

A. "There was a poll taken in Austria much like your Harris Poll. Eleven percent of the people surveyed said that if they had their choice of a government they would want to live under the monarchy. Now eleven percent does not seem to be a very high figure but the same poll was taken in Belgium and only one percent of the people wanted a monarchy."

Q. (From a young female student) "Who then would be the Emperor if that were to materialize?"

A. "My father is 73 years old and had to renounce any pretension to the throne. I have five sisters — I am the oldest of my brothers — I would."

Q. "You admitted that even though the Common Market is moving along very well toward unity there are a lot of border problems due to different languages and customs. If that remains a problem, wouldn't you draw upon the influence of the Catholic Church to settle such disputes since much of the Market is Catholic?"

A. "Most certainly yes. But I take their advice when it's good and disregard it when it's bad. For example, there was an Irish Catholic priest who was smuggling arms into a country in Africa dealing in revolution. The man was caught by the authorities and promised not to do it again. He returned immediately to that activity — was caught again, and again told the authorities he would not do that again. He was released. The church said that we should have aided much more in his release. I told the church that that man should have been shot."

Q. "Are you related to the Royal House of Windsor?"

A. "Yes, through the Saxsonian Line. But I do not go in for all that social activity. I must by protocol attend the weddings of the royal families in Europe but I do not care for all that; I would rather be out talking politics, promoting the United States of Europe.

"One thing saddened and angered me last June at a wedding to which my grandmother attended. She of course needed two escorts since she is blind and when she came into the hall all the royalty stood up specifically to greet her with the exception of one person. That was Prince Andrew, who was sitting on a couch with his cigarette and glass of wine, lounging around very disrespectfully. There was my grandmother you know, the last Empress of Austria — quite an amazing achievement. But we were vindicated when we saw one of Andrew's uncles race across the floor, stand him up and proceed to castigate him before the others in attendance."

A further note by Mr. Witmer: The Archduke referred to England as "us and them" or "them and us"! The overall impression he left with the small audience was that he didn't care too much for the British. He did state that he admired and liked the Queen and Prince Charles.

Our thanks to Mr. Rosenthal and Mr. Witmer for their contributions.

On a coordinated European development, the foreign ministers of the revived Western European Union met in Rome on October 27. They agreed, said one report, "to breathe fresh vigour into the long-comatose organisation."

This affirmed the WEU members' desire to strengthen the European pillar of the transatlantic alliance and increase cooperation within WEU countries (Belgium, Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and West Germany) on security, arms procurement and disarmament negotiations. At the same time there appears to be a general desire, particularly noticeable on the part of the British, to make it clear that a revivified WEU should develop as a supplement rather than a challenge to NATO.

Orrin G. Hatch, Republican senator from Utah, also expressed his reservations in an article he wrote for the November 12 WALL STREET JOURNAL, entitled "A 'Europeans Only' Club Threatens NATO":

Although the State Department and the European ministers themselves have said that the WEU must serve "as a contribution to the cohesion of the NATO alliance and not as a search for a substitute for it," I remain skeptical. My concern is that the WEU may become wedge between Europe and the U.S. — ultimately weakening the security of NA’”.

According to a report published by an official WEU working group this year, the overall "theme" of the WEU is the coordination of European defense efforts. Pardon me, but I thought a body already existed to take care of those needs, and it is called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Of course, there is one critical difference between the WEU and NATO: The WEU excludes the U.S.... I believe the WEU should more properly be called the EOC (Europeans-Only Caucus).

The misguided effort to revive the WEU was launched by the French.... The British magazine ECONOMIST believes that: "The French motive is clear. For years France has seen the WEU as a means of getting back some of the influence over European defense matters it lost when it took its armed forces out of NATO's military command in the mid-1960s." The French also seem worried that the West Germans are sliding toward neutrality, and they hope to prevent this by tying the West Germans more firmly to NATO....

In Rome this past weekend, the WEU member nations agreed to hold twice-yearly joint meetings of their defense and foreign ministers. This select group will meet prior to NATO's sessions. Might not they present their recommendations to NATO as a fait accompli?

Ironically, one of the purposes of the WEU is to allay the concerns of U.S. officials that the Europeans are not doing enough for their own defense. This worthwhile objective may backfire because the WEU could actually undercut American public support for keeping U.S. troops in Europe. NATO's security may very well be jeopardized if this misguided, some say sinister, initiative goes full-steam ahead.

A case in point was last June's narrow Senate vote opposing an amendment by Sen. Sam Nunn (D., Ga.) to sharply reduce the levels of U.S. combat troops in western Europe unless the Europeans increase their defense spending. The administration lobbied very hard against this proposal, and it failed. However, next year members of the Europeans-Only Caucus may get a change in U.S. policy they hadn't bargained for.

At the Rome meeting, the WEU ministers formally approved the removal of the remaining WEU restrictions on West Germany's production and stockpiling of conventional weapons. The Soviet Union severely criticized the proposed lifting of restrictions (on the production of long range bombers and missiles) after a preliminary agreement was announced in June.

The West German foreign minister, Hans Dietrich-Genscher, said the decision will not alter his government's longstanding policy on armaments. "We have no intention of producing strategic weapons," Genscher remarked. A document issued by the group said "commitments and controls" concerning nuclear, biological and chemical weapons will be maintained for West Germany.

In this regard, it will be a little time yet before West Germany could acquire, if it eventually chose to, nuclear weapons. An article entitled "Europeanization of NATO" appeared in the November, 1984 issue of the BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS. It reported, in part:

The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970 prohibits many NATO members, including West Germany, from acquiring or controlling nuclear weapons. But thanks to several U.S. interpretations of the NPT...to which the Soviet Union never objected, non-weapons states may possess nuclear delivery systems and participate in consultations regarding nuclear defense as long as the actual warheads (which might be deployed in those states) remain under the control of a weapons state.

In theory, therefore, a European nuclear force could take the place of the present American one without violating the NPT. It could be directly controlled by one or both of the European nuclear weapons states (Britain and France) and deployed in consultation with the non-nuclear states, principally West Germany....

Present American interpretations of the NPT effectively forbid a jointly controlled European nuclear force, but there is no guarantee that these interpretations will extend beyond NPT renewal in 1995. Juergen Todenhoefer, arms control spokesman for West Germany’s ruling Christian Democrats, recently proposed such a European nuclear force, bringing back memories of West German demands for control of the "most modern" weapons in the 1950s.

Olympics Continue to Divide Soviets and Their Satellites

Meetings were held in Mexico City last week of representatives of the 150 national Olympic committees to discuss the future of the Games. The hottest topic was whether the Soviet Union, which does not recognize the South Korean government, will attend the 1988 Games in Seoul. (There is no serious talk of moving the Games elsewhere.) Marat Gramov, the Soviet Olympic chairman, lambasted Seoul-Washington links (he said Soviet athletes' lives could be in danger — same charge with regard to the '84 Los Angeles Games). This meeting witnessed a further cleft between Moscow and the East European capitals over the issue of international sports and sanctions. Reported the November 13 LOS ANGELES TIMES:

The word was out in Mexico that Olympic leaders of East Germany, Hungary and even Poland, at a recent meeting of Communist sports ministers in Prague, told Gramov pretty plainly that they want to go to Seoul and may do so even if the Soviets do not, just as the Romanians went on their own to Los Angeles. The Romanians have already said they will be in Seoul.

It was noticeable at the Mexico meetings that Manfred Ewald, East Germany's Olympic chairman, was taking some different approaches than Gramov.... The East Germans...announced they would send teams to two forthcoming world championship matches in Seoul. The Soviets have avoided even such limited commitments....

When F. Don Miller, director of the United States Olympic Committee, sharply rebuked Gramov for accusing the Reagan Administration of conspiring to harm Soviet athletes in Los Angeles, some of the many Olympic delegates who congratulated the American were from Eastern Europe.

Los Angeles Olympic committee officials, by the way, paid most of the Romanian team's expenses to come to L.A. The struggle for the soul of Eastern Europe continues, nearly 40 years after the end of World War II.

— Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau