INTERNATIONAL UNION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23615, 27 March 1940, Page 8

INTERNATIONAL UNION

It is not surprising that the idea of a "United States of Europe" has attracted the approval of M. Reynaud, France's new Prime Minister. In the first instance the idea was French: Aristide Briand, who was his country's Foreign Minister through many years, no matter what bloc provided the Cabinet, made this proposal in May of 19:50. It was more than a vague suggestion, and he earnestly argued the case for it before the League of Nations. There it was received with a profusion of compliments ; if goodwill alone could have ensured it a practical welcome, it would have been installed at once as the next experiment in international peace. But goodwill could rtot be enough ; doubts of its utility grew when practical details were discussed, and agreement that it was premature as a plan led to its being dropped out of sight. Its point of origin remains, however, as a matter of deep interest. "No nation," it was recently said, "has been so dominated by Europe as France, none other has influenced it more ; it is from that double causality that France has sprung, and still to-day, when France has become an Empire, it is that which constitutes her essence and her raison d'etre." M. Daladier, last December, declared —"The Franco-British union is open to all . . . 1 conceive that a new Europe should have a far wider organisation than that which now exists." That utterance, too, was in the Briand tradition. Yet both these presentday leaders of France have made the winning of the war an essential pre-requisite to any considerable broadening of the federal basis for peace. That, too, accords with French precedent, which blends realism with alluring dreams.