U.S. Key to Europe's Future, Ambassador of Holland Says

Dr. Eelco N. Van Kieffens, Ambassador of the Netherlands, speaking last night in New Lecture Hall, said that the future of Western Europe depends to a great extent on what the United States does in the next few months. The United Nations Council of Harvard sponsored his speech and he was introduced by President Conant on behalf of the University.

Three events of crucial importance, he pointed out, made the way an appropriate one for a discussion of Western Europe's future. President Truman's speech on American foreign policy, the signing of the Western European agreement in Brussels, and the opening of debate on the Czechoslovakian situation in the Security Council are of the highest significance.

Dr. Van Kleffens emphasized the fact that the big problem in Western Europe today is not economic but political. Production in all five of the nations that signed the agreement in Brussels,--Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg--is increasing rapidly.

These nations need the economic aid embodied in the E.R.P. to be sure but what they need more, is help in combating batting the menace of "militant Communism." He called upon America not to break the bonds of the "North Atlantic Community" saying that this was the stronghold of the ideals of equality and freedom so antithetical to the communist ideology.