The more Labour Party speakers attempt to explain away the
decision of the Party to discourage its members from all association with the United Europe Congress to be held at The Hague in May the more impossible it becomes to resist the conclusion that what lies at the bottom of it all is petty jealousy of Mc. Churchill, who, since the speech he delivered at Zurich in 1946, has been the acknow- ledged head of the unofficial movement for European unity. By unofficial I mean, of course, non-governmental. On the govern- mental side leadership lies beyond question with Mr. Bevin (for all that can be in immediate question is the unity of Western Europe), and it might have been supposed that he would welcome warmly any responsible endeavour to mobilise popular support for the principles he is advocating. Personally, I have viewed with great mistrust far-ranging plans for anything like federal union, whether on a European or an even wider scale ; but the declaration in United Europe's statement of policy that " it would be premature to define the precise constitutional relationship between the nations and a unified Europe " leaves open exactly what ought to be left open. The Hague Congress may be an event of the first importance, and I hope many Labour supporters in Parliament and out of it will have the independence to identify themselves with it.
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