11 NOVEMBER 1949, Page 2

Building on Brussels

The search for solid ground among the shifting mass of inter- national conferences in Paris at this season is most notably rewarded in the case of the meeting of the five Brussels Treaty Powers— Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg— which took place on Monday. Not only is the Brussels Treaty the most precise and immediately practical of the many formal arrange- ments linking the Governments of Western Europe, it is also the one on which the firmest action has been taken. The announcement issued after Monday's meeting is therefore of first-class importance in indicating how the five Powers concerned will conduct themselves in those questions of defence, economic co-operation, social and cultural matters, and the future of Germany, which arc also of con- cern to a wider range of Governments. As the most compact group among the Atlantic Treaty Powers they have bound themselves more closely to mutual defence than any others and have set an example of day-to-day military organisation. Consequently it was to be expected that they would take a lead in discussions with the other Atlantic Treaty Powers, and the formation of a new defence group consisting of France, Britain and Italy, announced on Tuesday, is bound to owe much both to the example of and its common membership with the Brussels group. In this case, and in that of the two conventions signed on social security and medical aid, discussion has produced tangible results. The exchange of views on the German problem, which also took place, must have cleared the ground for Wednesday's meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Britain, France and the United States. The forthcoming meeting of the Finance Ministers of the Brussels Powers links directly with Mr. Hoffman's suggestions for regional economic groupings, and it is more likely to be demonstrated here than any- where else that practical possibilities rather than fanciful speeches are the dominant factor in British policy in the international economic field. In Brussels, in short, is a nucleus around which European co-operation can be built—real co-operation, impinging on the every- day lives of the people.