It is not, of course, a new proposal. The idea,
in its modern form, was first promulgated by Count Coudenhove-Kalergi, and was in 1929 adopted by Briand as the basis of a European order. The Briand plan did not materialise, partly because it provoked opposi- tion among French and even British nationalists, and partly because it aroused the hostility of the League of Nations Secretariat. It is doubtful whether, in the political or economic field, it would today prove practicable. In the U.S.S.R. it would certainly be mis- interpreted as some menacing coalition on the part of Western Europe, and the Soviet adherents in the several countries would be instructed to oppose their veto. It is evident, moreover, that no effective European Union could be created which did not include mutual tariff and currency arrangements not extended to the outer world ; this in its turn would run counter to the loan policy of the United States, where public opinion still seems unaware that it will be difficult indeed to reconcile the functions of the world's greatest creditor with those of the world's greatest exporter. Any scheme, therefore, for a politically or economically United Europe under French leadership (since France is naturally the greatest, and may in two years become the richest, of all strictly European Powers) would thus encounter political and economic objections which might well prove insuperable. But the idea, in its cultural, ethical and psycholo- logical aspect, is unquestionably valuable. It is in this sense that it should serve as a criticism, and even as a corrective, of those conceptions of " universality " which are today again so fashionable. It implies indeed that those who desire an expanded internationalism should start from an inner nucleus of cohesion, and thereafter extend outwards. This is surely a more prudent method of procedure than that which is so frequently advocated, by which the principle of universality is laid down at-the outset, and the subsequent stages of cohesion are left until later.
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