A Regional Group in Europe
The British Commonwealth of Nations, said General Smuts just before leaving Canada, is the oldest and most successful regional group in the world. In finding a place for regional agreements within the framework of World Security, the Charter acknowledged something which already existed in a perfect form, and is capable of being imitated. When he went on to say that the most suitable area for a regional group is Europe itself, he may be supposed to have meant that something like the association of nations in the Commonwealth is capable of being built up in Europe. The case of Europe differs from that of the Commonwealth in that the latter started with a unity based on the Empire, and retained and de- veloped that unity when the Dominions became autonomous, whereas Europe has to start from nations not traditionally asso- ciated. But it may well be argued that, just as the Charter itself asserts that the new organisation starts from the co-operation which has existed in war, so during the war there has been the closest possible co-operation between certain European governments which have actually functioned on British soil, and successfully pooled their resources. If Europe as a whole is at present too diversified a region for the emergence of a regional group, in northern and western Europe there is all the material, and perhaps also the will, for closer association, starting from the intimate contacts of war. There will be no union such as that proposed by Mr. Churchill between Britain and France in 1940. But the time is peculiarly favourable for treaties which should deal first with security, and, secondly, with economic and cultural interests. General Smuts said he was not one of those who thought that human conflicts arose solely from material and economic causes. But in the spiritual and moral sphere, too, the Charter is not without its promises. The Economic and Social Council which it sets up—a body responsible to the General Assembly and not the Security Council—specifically demands the promotion of co-operation in the social, moral arid cultural sphere ; and its work is capable of being developed in- tensively on the regional level.
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