PEOPLE AND THINGS
By HAROLD NICOLSON
[Mr. Nicolson will contribute a page under this heading every week] T HAVE long been fascinated by Count Coudenhove- 1 Kalergi. It is an achievement, to start with, to be born of an Austrian father (of Dutch origin) and a Japanese mother. It is cosmopolitan, to say the least, to be a Czech citizen in 1939 and to live in Switzerland. And it is fitting that, being thus endowed, Count Coudenhove-Kalergi should have been the prophet of the United States of Europe. I confess that in the old days I regarded his "Paneuropa " as a little more than some " idle song for pipe or virelay." He seemed but one among the many amateurs who contributed their trills and tremolos to the orchestra of Geneva. Then suddenly, mingling with the variations of Count Coudenhove, came the deep double-bass of Aristide Briand. That tremendous 'cello boomed out in sympathy with the adolescent flute of Paneuropa. We were all impressed. It was no slight thing to have con- verted Briand when still so young. The fabric of Count Coudenhove's dream of a federal Europe has since then, to all seeming, crashed to earth. Yet he persists with his flute-playing, patiently, persuasively, delicately. And how right he is ! Lost causes are today the only respectable causes which are left for us to defend.
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