U.S. Finance Policy Hurts De Gaulle

American policy in France is serving to check the De Gaulle trend, Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. declared yesterday on his return from a 10-week European assignment with United States Roving Ambassador Averill Harriman.

"There is good reason to believe," Schlesinger said, "that we can put France on her feet with a government of the present type."

He pointed to the just-reached ECA decision channelling $300,000,000 into the French economy over the next two months as "clear indication of this government's intentions." This "counterpart fund" comprises monies France has been bound to set aside since the start of the Economic Cooperation Administration as an anti-inflation reserve specifically paralleling each American allocation. Ordinarily the reserve would remain untouchable. Schlesinger claims that releasing the funds is officially a non-partisan action aimed at economic health, but that it actually operates in a fundamental way against De Gaulle.

"It will enable a general wage increase to go into effect," he noted. "That means a long step toward recovery--and away from the political instability De Gaulle represents."

Harriman's Assistant

Schlesinger's job as Special Assistant to Harriman involved a tour of eight Continental countries to report on the political situations within each and to "help set in motion an information program for ECA."

In general he feels that "the great achievement of ERP has been reviving the will to resist totalitarianism, internally and externally. The fantasy of neutrality is non-existent, except in Sweden." He calls the record to date of the Office of European Economic Cooperation, the 16-nation joint agency, "perhaps the most incredible accomplishment in international economic cooperation ever-the dimensions of which, as a prelude to European unity, aren't appreciated here."

Most Serious Problem

To Schlesinger the most serious problem now is the increasing pressure in Europe for rearmament with its concomitant diversion of recovery funds. "The only way out," he asserted, "will be by an iron-clad military commitment to the Marshal Plan countries and the immediate resumption of military lend-lease."

"No appreciation exists here," Schlesinger observed, "for the extent of exasperation toward the USSR in Europe on the part of everyone except the Communists."