Call To Europeans To End National Rivalries

Northern Advocate, 4 August 1949, Page 9

Call To Europeans To End National Rivalries

LONDON, Wed. (10.30 a.m.). —A call to Europeans for a new effort to overcome national rivalries was made today by Mr Winston Churchill and Belgium’s Premier (M. Paul Henri Spaak).

The two statesmen made their appeal in prefaces to the book “The European Movement and the Council of Europe,” which was published anonymously today on the authority of the European movement.

The book surveys the history of efforts to bring the European nations together.

Mr Churchill wrote: “We must proclaim the mission and design of a united Europe, whose moral conception will win the respect and gratitude of mankind, and whose physical strength will be such that none will dare molest her tranquil way.”

Old feuds must die, he said, and territorial ambitions must be forgotten. Discussing the coming Council-of-Europe meetings at Strasbourg, Mr Churchill said the movement had made swifter progress than had been thought possible. “Europe shall arise out of her ruins and troubles and, by uniting herself, carry the world a step nearer the ultimate unity of all mankind,” Mr Churchill added.

M. Spaak declared that it was absolutely necessary that Europe should unite.

“If we do not achieve this goal, Europe will lose much of her greatness and prestige,” he said. “We may be faced with a decline of her ancient civilisation.”

The Statute of the Council of Europe, which meets for the first time in Strasbourg next week, came into force today. Italy, Luxembourg and Norway lodged their ratifications with the Foreign Office, bringing the total ratifications to the requisite seven. Sweden, Denmark, Ireland and Britain had already deposited instruments of ratification.