3 JANUARY 1947, Page 8

The announcement of two articles i in the Dilly . Telegraph by

Mr. Churchill on a United States of Europe aroused general and inevitable interest, which the first article when it appeared abun- dantly justified. The writer, as might be expected, went straight for the mark. "Two or three hundred millions of people in Europe have only got to wake up one morning and resolve to be happy and free by becoming one family of nations, banded together from the Atlantic to the Black Sea for mutual aid and protection." Quite. But does such an assertion carry us an inch nearer anywhere? The plain fact is that, if U.N.O. succeeds, Federal Union or some- thing similar will almost certainly evolve out of it ; if U.N.O. fails, the leap to something far beyond U.N.O. will obviously be hope- less. But in his second article Mr. Churchill strikes a very different note. Let, he appeals, there be a Council of Europe (presumably a Regional Council under U.N.O.) working for mutual security and the destruction of economic barriers ; if all nations will not join, let as many join as will ; if Governments will not act, let "strong societies and organisations of a private and popular character be formed" to proclaim the doctrine of European unity. This is sound practical stuff with which no one could quarrel, the more so since there is no suggestion of a European Parliament directly elected by the people.