European Unity
Mr. Bevin's statement on European unity to the Foreign Press Association on Tuesday should satisfy everyone who is not committed irretrievably to one stereotyped form of European unity—which does not mean European union. There could be no mistaking the sincerity of the Foreign Secretary's declaration of his resolve to reach the desired goal, and he could not have summed up the whole position better than in the affirmation that " some day 0.E.E.C., military defence and all the other-things at present disjointed would have to be brought under one organism." They will ; and the sooner
the better. Energy in fact could more profitably be directed to that end than to the creation of new European bodies for which functions would have to be devised. None the less the desire of France and some other countries for such institutions is a factor that cannot be ignored. Certainly if must not be met with blank opposition. While Mr. Bevin is perfectly right to stand out for a Council of European Governments, attended by Ministers qualified to commit their own Cabinets, that by no means excludes the co-existence of a European Assembly with the purely consultative functions to which' even the French propose to confine it. It would be irresponsible in the sense that it could commit no one. Even so it need cause no serious embarrassments to Governments, which would be perfectly, free to adopt or to disregard its recommendations. It might, as Mr. Bevin said, be a mere talking-shop, but how can the democratic method of discussion and dialectic be pursued but by talking out differences, and arriving, through compromise or conversion, at agreement ? A European public opinion is worth working for.
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