Abstract
THERE have been comments from various sources in recent months to the effect that Mr. Winston Churchill was too preoccupied with the direction of the War to give adequate attention to questions of the reconstruction to follow it. His broadcast address on March 21 was an answer to such criticism ; it was delivered in measured terms, and set forth his views on the future of Great Britain, of Europe, and of the world. The first essential is, of course, the utter destruction of Nazism, and Mr. Churchill suggested that the first stage will be its disappearance from Europe. This will be the time to build up, on the lofty conceptions of freedom, law and morality which was the spirit of the League of Nations, a sort of Council of Europe, consisting of the great European States, associated with confederations of lesser States, so that “we shall achieve the largest common measure of the integrated life of Europe that is possible without destroying the individual characteristics and traditions of its many ancient and historic races”. Towards this end, discussions are already taking place. Achievement of this project, however, will be possible only when the nations realize that none of them will be able to achieve the full satisfaction of its individual desires. The Council of Europe would be followed by a Council of Asia, leading on to a world organization.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reconstruction and a Council of Europe. Nature 151, 359 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151359a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151359a0