LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Britain and Europe
Stit,—At a time when the Government, the Opposition, and so much informed opinion recognise and agree that the social and economic structure which directed the western way of life from the sixteenth century to the outbreak of war has become moribund and must be replaced, the tardy acceptance by our Government of far-sighted plans intended to restore the virility of the declining West is a cause for wonder and disappointment. The history of the last thirty years and our present dependence upon American goodwill should be sufficiently emphatic, as lessons, to keep us from the sin of self-veneration which has almost sapped the moral and material strength of Western Europe. But in this country the lessons and the teachers are too disliked to be readily accepted. The Marshall Plan was hailed as an idea of genius, but its interpretation seems to have followed the narrow lines of self- help, which was certainly not intended. The Schuman Plan, no less magnificent as an idea, is to be submitted to formal tests and examina- tions before it can be considered ; it involves more giving than taking. Meanwhile time passes, and the cultural, economic and political inter- dependence of Western Europe becomes flaccid for want of action. If our politicians cannot realise that both these plans, O.E.E.C., the Council of Europe, and similar movements towards integration are simply.adjuncts to a greater idea and principle, it may be they will never know until Communism teaches them.
In this country we speak glibly of Commonwealth unity, but we sensibly gnore the distances that separate the various parts of the Commonwealth from each other. Is it being obvious to remind the Government that we in these islands are a mere twenty miles from the European mainland, and that we hold in common with the countries of Western Europe a culture from the same sources, and live with the same feeling of anxiety
in the dawn of the same future ?—Yours faithfully, JOHN BRAY. Whitecroft, Weston Colville, Cambridge.
Previous page
