MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
UPON the Order Paper of the House of Commons there stands a motion in the name of Mr. Ronald Mackay and others on the subject of European Union. It is a carefully phrased statement, and it recommends both a short-term and a long-term policy. With the short-term policy advocated by Mr. Mackay and his friends few people, I imagine, would disagree. The aim is to create, in " con- sultation " with the Dominions, a political union in Western Europe such as shall be strong enough to save democracy and to rescue from collapse the standards of our civilisation. It is urged that a "Council of Western Europe," composed of the sixteen Marshall countries plus Western Germany, should immediately be constituted for the purpose of laying down "the broad lines of common action." Under this Council a number of permanent staffs would be estab- lished whose duty it would be to devise common plans for economic recovery and for defence. The economic staff would devote special and urgent attention to such matters as the stabilisation of currency, the development of colonial territories,, and an all-round increase in industrial and agricultural production. These international staffs would work under the general supervision of the Council and would remain in permanent session. Obviously some such joint planning is both necessary and practicable. In fact, many of the measures advocated by Mr. Mackay under the heading of short-term policy are already being put into effect. The Conference of the Sixteen Powers does, in fact, constitute an organisation, if not an institution, closely akin to a Council of Western Europe. Permanent inter- national staffs are, in fact, already operating. A general agreement has, in fact, become necessary regarding the part to be played by German industry in any joint programme of recovery. The Treaty of Brussels, the suggested customs union between France and Italy, even the recent statements made by the Prime Ministers of the three Scandinavian countries, all indicate that Western Europe is becoming rapidly conscious of the need for wider trade areas and closer political planning. The idea of a Western Union is developing naturally, even while it is being institutionally planned.
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Mr. Mackay and his friends need not for these reasons feel anxious about the success and growth of their short-term programme. It is their long-term programme which is questionable. In the last section of their motion they define their long-term policy as being a federation of Europe, with a constitution (presumably a written constitution) " based upon the principles of common citizen- ship, political freedom and representative government, including a charter of humaq rights." The idea is that the Western European Governments should convene a Constituent Assembly composed of representatives chosen by the Parliaments of the participating States. The task of this Assembly would be to draw up a constitution for the Federation and to define the powers which the Federal Govern: ment would possess in such matters as defence, foreign affairs, customs, currency and the planning of production, trade, power and transport. Whatever criticisms may be made regarding this long-term policy, it cannot be accused of any want of precision. The scheme advocated is nothing more or less than the creation for Western Europe of a rigid and precise constitution providing for federal institutions analogous to those Which exist in the United States. Each of the participating States would be obliged to make a formidable sacrifice of national sovereignty ; and countries such as Great Britain, France and Italy would, under the scheme, be left only with that independence today possessed by the States of Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine. When faced with so tre- mendous a proposition, the ordinary man will ask himself two questions. How far is it practicable? How far is it necessary?
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In considering an idea of such comparative novelty it is necessary to clear the mind of two obstacles to unbiassed judgement. In the first place, one should not allow oneself to be influenced by the fact that the idea of.federal union has been advocated in the past by people who were more -enthusiastic than wise. There have been those who have stimulated popular interest in the conception by over-simplifying the issues and evading all mention of inevitable difficulties. There have been those who have distorted the problem by taking false historical analogies, such as the federation of the United States of America. There have been those agaip who in all sincerity have been so impressed by the desirability of world government that they have allowed their idealism to cloud their prudence. These advocates have confused the public mind by representing "national sovereignty" as some slight and disreputable accident, which could and should be readily surrendered by all people of good will. Such evasions of reality are certainly irritating ; but they should not prejudice us against the whole conception from the start. In the second place, we should be careful not to allow the words " practicable " or " impracticable " to assume great shapes in our minds. All the more valuable human concepts and inventions have at the outset seemed impossible to a great number of intelligent people ; if one possesses any faith in the progress of mankind one must admit that it must be an ever-renewed effort to render the impracticable practicable. I should not for these reasons dismiss the idea of a European Federation on the ground that it is absolutely unattainable ; I should say only that it is unattainable in relation to present world conditions.
* * * * The presence of a compelling common interest, such as joint defence against a potential aggressor, can certainly produce a con- federation of governments, or a coalition. If it is also to produce an organic federation of peoples, at least two other factors must equally be present. There must exist, in the first place, some wide and deep community of race, language, creed or political tradition. In the second place, there must exist some geographical isolation, some physical identity, some sharply defined outline. Neither of these two hypotheses is present in Western Europe today. Such community of feeling as exists does not penetrate below the govern- mental or departmental level ; and the eastern edge of Europe melts away into forests of birch and sand. If the psychological obstacles to federation are for these reasons, and for an unforeseeable period, insurmountable, the institutional difficulties are as great. It is not reasonable to imagine that Russia and her satellites would be any- thing but bitterly hostik to any such federation ; nor, in the face of such hostility, would it be prudent to count upon the whole-hearted co-operation of the three Scandinavian States. Our own relations with the Dominions, some of whom during the next fifty years will be on. the way to becoming world Powers, would not be strengthened by any such federal organisation ; they have, in fact, always been averse from any federal constitution even among themselves. The problem of representation, and voting powers, in any federal Assembly would create a sorry wrangle, nor is it to be supposed that the masses in this or any other country would willingly accept the dictates of an international Government which would appear to them both irreplaceable and remote. The surrender of national sovereignty would, when it came to the point, appear as the sur- render of acquired rights and interests. * *
I do not for these reasons regard a democratic federation of Europe as a practicable possibility ; and in this angry world, with the sands of time running against us, the impracticable becomes dangerous. Nor do I consider federation necessary. The Marshall Powers are being forced by external pressure to adopt processes of political and economic co-ordination far closer than any which have been con- templated before, The Conference of the Sixteen does, in fact, represent a Council of Western Europe, and its "continuing organisa- tion" does, in fact, amount to a planning staff operating in permanent session. To strive for more than this and to seek artificially to create an organic federation would be to create illusions, and to arouse fears and animosities, which could do no practical good and might do much irretrievable harm.. Mr. Mackay's short-term policy is already embarked upon what we pray will be a quick and practical course of development ; let us postpone his long-term policy until A.D. 2048.
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