Two weeks ago, ECAdministrator Paul Hoffman set out for Europe with the avowed intention of seeking some tangible progress on European integration which might impress the U.S. Congress. His program for the 18 Marshall Plan members included: 1) abolition of double pricing (one price for domestic consumption, another for exports); 2) a new monetary clearing plan to provide Western Europe with a common payments system; 3) appointment of an OEEC super-boss who could operate on the highest levels and get things done. His candidate for the job: Belgium's ex-Premier Paul-Henri Spaak. When the meeting in Paris' Chateau de la Muette broke up last week, Hoffman had suffered a grinding disappointment.
Chief opponent to Hoffman's program was Britain's Sir Stafford Cripps. Double pricing, said Cripps, could not be eliminated at this time. For example, with British general elections then only three weeks off, the Labor government was in no position to raise domestic coal prices. As to the European payments scheme, Cripps would have to study its impact on "the future of the sterling area." When Spaak was mentioned for OEEC's new "political conciliator," Cripps replied with a chilling no because Spaak had attacked Britain's go-slow attitude towards European economic integration. The Netherlands' handsome, beefy Dirk Uipko Stikker was chosen instead.
Once managing director of the famed Heineken Brewery Co., 53-year-old Stikker made a name for himself as leader of Holland's "Foundation of Labor," a labor-management outfit which is largely credited with the country's fine postwar record for industrial harmony. As OEEC "political conciliator," his powers and duties are vaguely defined. "In the jargon of the organization," Stikker quipped, "I might call myself a multilateral diplomatist."
Back in Washington, an associate asked Hoffman how he made out in Paris. "You know that expression, Veni, Vidi, Vici?" he answered. "Well, I made the first two."