Prior to Professor van der Laan's enquiry, in the March 1988 issue of the Messenger, on the general interest among astronomers from the European community to possibly participate in Key Programmes (KPs) at the European 80uthern Observatory, at least three distinct groups (including more than half of the above authors) were already involved in the study of "gravitational lensing" effects (see box on pages 10-11). Observations were being performed with the help of various telescopes on La 8illa as weil as at other observatories (VLA, CFHT, Palomar, Kitt Peak, etc.)
