DR. ADENAUER'S AIMS
WHILE the content of the talks Dr. Adenauer has been having in London With the Prime Minister and Mr. Eden naturally remains undisclosed something of their tenor may be inferred from the address which the German Chancellor gave to Members of the two Houses of Parliament on Tuesday. It was a conspicuously wise utterance, and it is not surprising that his hearers were considerably impressed. The Chancellor made it unmistakably plain that he himself stands, as he has always stood, for a close understanding with France, and has no higher aim internationally than the conversion of the two ancient antagonists into firm friends ; as a contribution to that end he. welcomes unreservedly both the Schuman Plan for iron and steel and the Pleven Plan for a European Army. But if he has no higher aim than this he has broader aims, reaching as far ultimately as European integration and concentrating immediately on the integration of Western Europe.
In all this, and much else that he said—regarding, for example. Germany's abandonment of nationalism and the impossibility of a policy of neutralisation for Germany—Dr. Adenauer was stating his own views with unquestionable sincerity. The question is how far he speaks for Western Germany as a whole. He is, of course, its titular mouthpiece. The country has given him its confidence (though his party does not by itself command a majority in the Bundestag) and there is no evidence that the confidence is being withdrawn. But that there are other elements in Germany is undeniable. That "the over- whelming majority of the German people have progressed beyond the idea of nationalism" may well be true, -though it represents hope rather than certainty. What is certain is that Germany's interests are bound up inseparably with those of Western Europe. In that association she can find safety, peace and as much of prosperity as any Western European nation enjoys in these rigorous days. But it is time, and more than time, to make the association complete. So long as rifts remain forces both inside and outside Germany may be at pains to make them wider. The formal and final conclusion of a treaty . with Germany will make a vast difference psycho- logically and politically. The completion of the secondary contractual rgree men t s now under discussion is a matter of urgency.
