FEDERAL UNION
SIR,—Your second article on Federal Union emphasises by implication how curiously remote the overwhelmingly compli- cated problems of federation are from the particular problem of Peace. The solution of the host of constitutional questions Involved can only be carried through under the influence of a much greater political sagacity than is likely to exist among the European peoples after the wax. Is it not permissible to question the validity of the premiss that all these questions are inseparable from the essential difficulty, namely, how to secure a continuous and unbreakable co-operation between the nations in the single task of keeping the peace?
It would appear preferable to direct our speculations more to devising a common defence system, and a common air- ways service, than dissipate them over the whole field of political relations. Success of agreed plans in these directions would inevitably encourage progress towards a fuller measure of federation. But, in general, one looks forward to a federated Europe for positive reasons, and not merely as an answer to the stupidity of war.—Yours faithfuly,
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