EUROPE: How to Get Buried

Somewhere in the growing archives of the Council of Europe rests a document which only the younger historians of today may have a chance to evaluate. It is Winston Churchill's detailed blueprint for a European army. When Churchill made his proposal in general terms, the Council's Consultative Assembly enthusiastically adopted it (TIME, Aug. 21). Last week, as soon as Churchill had flown back to London, the Assembly's Defense Committee put the Churchill blueprint away in the files, and adopted a vague and valueless watered-down version of the original.

The Schuman Plan for the integration of Europe's coal & steel industries was similarly threatened. When the Consultative Assembly voted a set of resolutions designed to give the proposed control authority more power, the British Labor group abstained. The quarrel between the British and French on the Schuman proposal flared up again when France's Paul Reynaud, shaking his finger at British Socialist Delegate Hugh Dalton, said: "We are told: 'Go ahead, you French, and build the House of Europe. If it is comfortable we will move into the room you have reserved for us. If it collapses we will attend your funeral . . .' Certain members of this Assembly think there's no use moving too fast. But if this Assembly does not move fast, it may find itself buried under the ruins of Europe."