Evening star., 1950-06-15
Britain and European Unity

In effect, in the statement it has just issued,
the Executive Committee of the British Labor
Party has taken position that has all the ear
marks Of being not merely doctrinaire but also
baSically isolationist or non European in its
attitude toward proposals particularly the
Schuman Plan for the pooling of iron and STEEL
to link the United Kingdom with efforts to pro-
mote the economic and political integration
of Western Europe.
The committee, which is the partys chief
governing board, does not always speak for the
Labor government, but in this case-even though
Prime Minister Attlee has just insisted that he
and his cabinet want ito help and not to
hinder the Schuman Plants statement is
couched in language emphatic enough to suggest
that the real policy of the Laborite majority
may be what the committee says it is. If so
then Britain-unless the Conservatives win the
next general election and work for integration-
will not cooperate in any undertaking that
might make it part of continental union.
For the committee, though strongly endors-
ing close cooperation through such mechanisms
as the Atlantic Pact, has tied the Labor Party
to policy that includes the following points,
among others: Cd That the domestic interests
of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth
countries must take precedence over all present
programs for unity with Europe; 90 that the
y. n. Is Tie nerve CcIlCeT OI IIle COMMUNICABLE
and the banker for the sterling area, the worlds
largest multilateral trading bloc; 90 that the
British and Commonwealth economies are
complementary to far greater extent than the
British and European economies; "a that the
Schuman Plan cannot be made to work unless
the participating nations nationalize their iron
and steel industries; (5 that without such
naturalization Britain cannot Join in the plan,
and go that the Laborite government, having
in mind its socialist objectives at home, cannot
afford to surrender any of its sovereignty to
supranational authority whose anti-socalist
members France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, etc.
would have the power to establish wage stand
ards, fix prices, govern production and impose
strict marketing and other rules-a view which
incidentally seems strangely at odds with Lon
dons avowed willingness to subordinate itself to
the supranational agency proposed for atomic
control
These are not all the points made by the
Labor Partys Executive Committee, but they are
enough to illustrate how the Attlee government
If it follows such a policy, which Mr.. Attlee
has been at pains to disavow-will keep Britain
from integrating itself with the Western Euro
pean countries. To be sure, those countries can
move ahead toward unity by themselves, Just as
France, Western Germany Italy and the Benelux
trio are hoping to do in the Forthcoming nego-
uations to effectuate the plan proposed by
French Foreign Minister Schuman. Still, with
out British participation, all such unifying
efforts will be slowed down and rendered con-
Siderably more difficult
The British, if they are going to divorce
themselves from continental unif1cation, will
have quite job proving the rightness of that
position here in America. They have been the
chief benefciaries of the Marshall Plan, under
which they have committed themselves to the
principle of European integration. If now they
are going to do an about face, it is hard to see
why this country should continue to prop up the
British economy.