Towards Unity in Europe
There are those who hold that the political difficulties of the United Nations can be faced with comparative equanimity, since the economic side of U.N.O. will soon be carrying the political side effectively. That is too much to assume yet, but the sound results achieved by the meeting of the Economic and Social Council which has just ended at Lake Success go some way towardssmitigating the disappointment which recent political failures or deadlocks have occasioned. The creation of a European Economic Commission, with headquarters at Geneva, and an Asiatic Economic Commission, with headquarters at Shanghai, is a decision of immediate impor- tance with far-reaching possibilities. The United States, it may be noted, is to be a member of both organisations. The European Commission will include all European members of U.N.O. if— which is still uncertain—Russia agrees to serve. If she declines some of her satellites may stay out too. The Conunision will take the place of the existing Emergency Economic Committee for Europe and will absorb the European Goal Organisation and the • European Inland Transport Organisation. It will therefore start with definite work on its hands ; indeed, the British delegate has proposed that the Commission should, like the Security Council, remain in permanent session. Such a body, unless it falls com- pletely, must exercise a valuable unifying influence in Europe, though the extent of that cannot be determined till Russia's attitude is more clearly defined, as regards both her own membership of the Commission and on the question whether it should concern itself with Germany's economic position, or leave that, as Russia desires, entirely to the occupying Powers. It must be hoped that these initial uncertainties will not long remain unresolved.
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