THE NATIONS: Toward a United Europe

In May 1948, young flax and green wheat grow on the plain of Waterloo. In the midst of the battle monuments, which include a cast-iron British lion glowering toward the French frontier, a humble seller of ice-cream cones, Jean Boewet, last week spoke his mind.

"The wheat grows taller here than anywhere else," said Jean Boewet. "All farmers know that human blood is good for the soil."

Jean Boewet thought human blood too costly a fertilizer. He went on: "I stand here and think about all the blood from so many corners of Europe which was spilled over this plain. Every month someone digs up a new skeleton. They can usually tell by the buttons of his uniform whether he was French, British, Prussian, Belgian or Dutch.

"Frontiers seem pretty foolish from where I stand. Skeletons don't know anything about frontiers."

Jean Boewet was a Belgian, but he was speaking as a European. As a European, he and many like him had for centuries wanted a Europe without frontiers. Though they included distinguished statesmen and intellectuals, their voices had always been drowned out.

Halfway House? Nevertheless, last week the urge toward European federation—or consolidation, or "Western Union," or whatever men might call the first steps toward a United States of Europe—was more vigorous than at any time since Napoleon's dream of unity-by-conquest crashed at Waterloo. Jean Boewet, looking out over Waterloo's rippling wheat, might well be skeptical. What could the statesmen show him besides the skeletons?

There was quite a lot:

¶ Five nations—France, Britain and the Benelux countries (Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg)—had signed at Brussels a 50-year mutual assistance pact, with emphasis on a military alliance. Last week the five defense ministers met in London, established a permanent five-power military committee, pondered common defense problems.

¶ In Brussels, the finance ministers of the five met to thresh out the economic aspects of their alliance.

¶In London, delegates to a six-power conference (the Brussels-pact nations and the U.S.) discussed a government for Western Germany.

¶ In Paris, where the 16 Marshall-Plan nations had created an Organization for European Economic Cooperation, a Committee on Methods worked on import needs, scheduled a report to OEEC's Council on May 10. German experts arrived to advise on meshing Western Germany into the European economy.

¶ In Washington, the State Department studied legislation to authorize shipment of arms to the 16 Marshall-Plan nations. A House committee finished work on a selective service bill (which encouraged Europe more than the proposed 70-group air force).