/ NEWS OF THE WEEK
IT is satisfactory that General Eisenhower should have stated in language unmistakably plain his conviction that Great Britain, having regard to her responsibilities as a member of the British Commonwealth (not that that is the only reason), could not with advantage take a place as a unit in a European federation. That confirms what the Prime Minister and Mr. Eden made clear to French Ministers early this month and to Americans generally more lately. their statements being fully understood and well received in either case. Britain can play her full part, and is playing it, as one of the principal members of N.A.T.O., and she is pledged to assist in building up an Atlantic community on the basis of N.A.T.O. Mean- while it is of course entirely open to the continental members of N.A.T.O. to enter into a full federal relationship, as General Eisenhower enjoined them to. But it is not quite clear in what capacity he was giving the injunction, whether as Commander- in-Chief of the N.A.T.O. armies or as potential President of the United States. Questions of political and economic union would appear to lie rather outside the scope of a military commander, and to suggest the summoning of a constitutional convention on closer unity because that " would mean a lot in the United States" is to move very fast and for an essentially wrong reason. If Europe is to federate it must be because it thinks federation would be a good thing for itself, not because America thinks so. There is too much inclination to assume that the American is the only possible model for closer union. That is by no means the case. New departures like the Schuman Plan and the European Army are, as General Eisen- hower recognised, steps in the direction he desires, and they may well indicate the lines of future progress. But that is for the Western European States themselves to decide, and since neither Britain nor the United States proposes to enter a European federation both of them should be sparing of their advice and exhortations to those who do or may.
