British entry into the European Common Market will coincide with the designation of a French representative to the rotating presidency of the European Economic Community Commission. The confluence may be stormy. The chief French nominee is expected to be Francois-Xavier Ortoli, 47, until last month Minister of Industrial and Scientific Development in President Georges Pompidou's Cabinet. Sir Christopher Soames, the probable British commission member, has reportedly threatened not to serve unless a Frenchman of "stature" is selected. What the British really object to, however, is Ortoli's unswerving Gaullism.
Ortoli, the Corsica-born, Hanoi-raised son of a high-level French civil servant, has up...
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