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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 2, 1983
PAGE 15
rhetoric, is doing the same thing. We Europeans need � very
strong jolt to wake us�� the fact that we have about ten years
before we must make a choice:
either to become a part of the
Soviet empire or to try to keep our independence.
Recently an address was delivered in Munich by the 78-year-old French
philosopher-author Manes Sperber.
He was this year's recipient of the
German book trade's peace prize. Mr. Sperber is what might be called a
cross-cultural European, born in 1905 in a part of the Austrian Empire, the
son of a rabbi. He grew up in Vienna and fled to Paris in the early 1930s,
where he has lived ever since. Therefore, he can be said to represent a
concerned European view of current events.
Significantly, Sperber's
remarks were published in BAYERNKURIER, the weekly Bavarian political organ
of Franz Josef Strauss' Christian Social Union.
As it [Europe] has become nondangerous itself [meaning not a
threat to the world], so Europe today is nevertheless more
endangered by far than ever before. Yes, this old Europe does
not deserve to go under. It has ceased to be a colonial power, no
conquests can tempt it anymore--this· war-mad continent could
finally become an exemplary peace power. There remains though a
fact of inestimable importance: It shares the massive continent
with a totalitarian Empire whose rulers consider their dictator
ship as endangered, as long as it does not extend to the shores of
the Atlantic Ocean, yes, and if possible, over the whole
earth....
Those who believe that Europe is today equally endangered by both
the United States of America and the Soviet Empire are--in my
eyes--blinded by aggressive ingratitude. On the other hand, it
is true that Europe must entrust its protection only to its own
strength and not to any superpower.
For a European of my generation, but also for those born later,
there can be no doubt that Europe can save itself and, at the same
time, its unequalled values if it is united into a federation.
Instead of being the bone of contention between two- superpowers,
Europe itself must become � superpower, neither expansionist nor
revengeful, but utterly determined through its own sufficiently
strong defense forces to deter anyone who might feel emboldened
to want to take possession of it because of its weakness and
their own political predominance.
As Mr. Sperber indicates, the united European nuclear force which we know
will come, will be intended to be a force. for world peace--"an exemplary
peace power" to use his words. It will arise out of a totally different set
of conditions than Nazism in the 1930s which attempted to unite Europe by
force of German arms.
(To be continued)
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau