LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must be accompanied by the name and address of the author, which will be treated as confidential.—ED. The Spectator]
AN ANGLO-FRENCH FEDERATION
SIK,—As Mr. J. Roger Carter seems to feel so superior to the " typical Western European mind," perhaps one who can hardly be suspected of this particular disability may venture to reply to his strictures on Professor Robbins' proposals. If ever hard facts have suggested to many people indepen- dently the same remedy, it is precisely the " polyglot, multi- national, heterogeneous aspect of Central Europe " which has again and again impressed on its best minds the necessity of a federal organisation. The necessity of this solution, which Professor Robbins, like many others, has advocated long before Mr. Streit, is perhaps more fully realised in those parts of Europe than in the rest. The experience of the last twenty years in particular has shown that in a region where any State, whatever its borders, will always include large racial minorities, the existence of many sovereign national States will for ever remain a serious danger to peace. If the case of Czecho-Slovakia proves anything, it is that even a democratic people cannot be trusted not to abuse the weapon of modem economic policy—against which no minority statute can protect—for the oppression of racial minorities. Of this thousands of German-speaking Jews from the Sudetenland, who cannot be suspected of Nazi sympathies, are ready to testify. And in Austria-Hungary, where, whatever we may have thought at the time, racial minorities have enjoyed greater freedom than has existed in those parts ever since, the nature of the problem of nationalities was guiding develop- ments decidedly in the direction of Federalism. If Federation were not desirable for other reasons, it would have to be invented for Central Europe ; and I have yet to find the person who has studied her problems and who does not regard some sort of Federation as the only way of securing lasting peace and economic improvement in that part of the world.
From the point of view of the Western Powers, however, the difficulty is that any Federation confined to Central Europe, with the inevitable preponderance the Germans would have in it, would in effect strengthen German influence and, for that reason, would be intolerable for France. Even with France and perhaps the North European countries inside the Continental Federation, the danger of German hegemony would still be great enough to make such a scheme unaccept- able to France. From her point of view, with the memory of the defection by her Allies after 1919 fresh in her mind, it is only wise to hold aloof from any such scheme till it is certain beyond human doubt that in any future order Great Britain will stand by her. For France only a Federation with Great Britain as a member can offer the security which other- wise she would seek—and for a time might obtain—by the dismemberment or her enemy. But it is not for her at this stage to show undue enthusiasm for a plan which can have attraction to her only if she is assured that Great Britain will permanently take her place in the new order of Europe. If such an order is to be achieved, it is this country which must take the lead, and which can make such an order possible by merely showing its willingness to enter such a Federation. Is there a better way in which this essential assurance can be given to France than by concluding a Federation with her now?
It is clearly unreasonable to expect the Government to announce now what it will do after the War. But it is a different thing for the people of this country to show that they are no longer prevented by false pride to submit to those restrictions of national sovereignty which a real rule of law in international affairs implies. Where the creation of the new order appears to involve sacrifices of national pride, it is the strong who must lead the way. Far from threatening to impose the new order by force, as Mr. Carter suggests, to begin Federation by Great Britain and France voluntarily submitting to the restrictions of their sovereignty which Federation involves, and then to offer entry on equal terms to others, seems to be the only way to allay the suspicion that the new order is only a new device to keep a particular
country down. When victory comes, almost any restrictions will be accepted by the defeated nation without causing resent- ment if the victors have themselves submitted to the same restrictions—and almost any restriction of the liberty of the defeated will be a lasting grievance, and the cause of future conflict, if it is imposed on the defeated only.—Yours faith-
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