(Skrev detta på engelska, för en utländsk lista. Bokens ämne är ju högst
internationellt. --AE)
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We've all heard how Winston Churchill held a speech in Zurich (Sep 1946),
Switzerland, and envisioned a united Europe in the future. But that's all most
of us know. Or was the speech in Amsterdam? Or the Hague? Or the Royal Albert
Hall?
The fact is that he spoke at all of those places, and many more, about a
future European union, and he was in many ways the driving force behind
increasing European cooperation and integration.
We can read more about this in Felix Klos' book Churchill's last stand - the
struggle to unite Europe (IB Tauris, 2018, 323 p - yes, it says 2018, but I
found it already now, in the Stockholm City Library; they have a time machine I
guess...).
One of the first seeds of European unity in the creative mind of Churchill
was perhaps his idea of a UK-French political union in 1940. France was near
collapse after the German invasion. Churchill wanted to keep France in the war
and offered the French prime minister, Paul Reynaud, his union plan: The UK and
France would be one country, with one citizenship, one currency, on legislative
assembly, and of course one army that wouldn't capitulate to the Germans.
Reynaud was positive to the plan (he hated the idea of giving in to the
Germans) but couldn't convince his cabinet. In the book we learn who the later
Vichy leader Petain torpedoed the plan by illegally tap Reynaud's phones, so he
got the details in advance and could lobby the ministers to reject the plan.
(If the plan had come through, the French would have continued fighting from
North Africa and other colonies, and lots of French soldiers would have been
brought there and to Britain from the collapsing front. Now it became the task
of de Gaulle to scrape up what he could get and create the Free French.)
The French had otherwise been early with plans for European unity. We read
that the French king Henry VI between 1600 and 1607 worked for his "Grand
Design", meaning to create a council for the 15 "leading Christian nations in
Europe". The plans fell and instead we got the horrific 30 years war.
Another early inspiration (Churchill had contacts in that direction already
in the 1930s) was count Richard von Coudenhove-Kalerg' Paneuropean Movement,
which held meetings and conventions and such in the 1920s and 30s. His
organisation is said to have had 100 000 members.
When Churchill to everyone's surprise lost the election right after the war,
he felt he needed something else to do (beside being leader of His Majesty's
Most Loyal Opposition at home), something on the world stage. (And yes, he also
planned his war memoires, but this book hardly mentions them - a lot of work
went into them.) He was scared of the Soviets and sad about the huge
devastation the war had cause. Europe must unite to rise from the ashes and be
strong enough to fend of the Soviets.
He set to work with great energy. After the famous Zurich speech (in front of
a packed town square, 40 000 listening; the speech was also reprinted in
newspapers around the world, later speeches would be on radio - at time time AM
radio a long way cross-border) he set to work. He invited capable people to
form a United Europe Committee to lead his United Europe Movement, among them
his son-in-law Duncan Sandys who came to have many important positions in the
movement. He tory, labour and liberal MPs in the committee because the work for
a united Europe was, as he said, "non-party, all-party and above party".
In 1948 the movement had a panel of 130 speakers ready go out all over the UK
to speak about the United Europe idea. 14 requests for a speaker came in every
week, according to this book.
Churchill lobbied among businessmen to get funding (also US business
contributed) and his political contacts to get support, and in May 1947 they
filled the Royal Albert Hall (some 8000 people) with a United Europe rally -
Churchill himself of course held the main speech. And in May 1948 they helped
organise the first international Congress of Europe in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Churchill was honourary chairman and held both the opening and ending speeches,
as well as open-air speeches for the general population in both Amsterdam and
the Hague. The book suggests that president Kennedy borrowed his "Ich bin ein
Berliner" from Churchill's "I am a European" in his speeches. (Making a speech
wasn't something Churchill took lightly. He'd spend days writing them, doing
half a dozen of drafts, testing the speech on his staff and friends. His
oratory skills, and also his excellent war memoirs,would later land him a Nobel
Prize in literature. This isn't mentioned in the book, however.)
And his efforts bore fruit. In 1949 the Council of Europe was created,
something Churchill had lobbied for. Original members were the UK, France,
Netherlands, Belgium,Luxemburg, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden. The
council consisted of a Committee of Ministers, selected by each country's
government, and a a Consultative Assembly of 78 parliamentarians (Churchill was
himself one), selected from each country's parliament.
But while Churchill was successful internationally (also the Americans liked
European unity - it helped the Marshall Plan and in holding back Stalin) he had
problems at home - not with popular support, but with the the Labour
government.Prime Minister Attlee and many Labour leaders were suspicious of
Churchill, and this was perhaps because: 1) They feared a tory conspiracy, a
devilish plan to make the Conservatives seem sensibel, having a visionary idea
of the future, and 2) socialists have tended to favour internationalism only if
it is a Socialist International. The United Europe Movement worked to get
Labour MPs to the Congress of Europe in Amsterdam, but out of 40 Labour MPs
originally signed up to go, 17 finally declined after the Labour leadership
launched a campaign against the Congress. But still, 23 refused bullying and
went anyway. (The total number of official delegates was something like 2000.)
Another failure was the Labour government's animosity towards the Coal and
Steel Union, which was formed to join German and French industries (also joined
by the Benelux countries and Italy). Britain had the largest steel industry in
Europe, but Labour didn't want to have anything with the new industrial union
to do. I guess it interfered with their silly nationalisation plans. It was
this union that later became the European Economic Community (EEC), later the
European Community (EC) sand now the European Union (EU). Britain didn't have a
good start with it, despite Churchill's efforts. In fact, when the UK tried to
jpoin in the 1960's, the then French president de Gaulle vetoed it! Maybe he
had too much strange British food when he was in exile in London during the
war... Cuisine britannique - mon dieu, non!
What British relations should be with Europe was a problem. Churchill saw
that Britain had a role to play, and relations to nurture, in three spheres: 1)
In Europe, 2) as head of the British Commonwealth, 3) and finally as a leading
partner among all English-speaking nations. Too much put into one sphere could
damage the country in other spheres.
Churchill had his chance to advance European relations when he came back as
Prime Minister in 1951, but the energy he had left had to be spent on other
sudden crises. It was the Korean War, the Cold War, nuclear armament (the UK
popped their first N-firecrackers under Churchill's government), troubles with
increased freedom movements in some of the colonies, the disastrous economy
(Britain was very heavy in debt due to the war, rationing was still on) and
there was no more room for brave European v initiative. (And a couple of years
into his second premiership it became clear it wasn't the old Churchill - it
was an old Churchill. A serious stroke was eg hidden under the public's carpet.)
Now when we face this incredibly stupid idea called Brexit, which some
populists with false and at best questionable arguments have lulled Britons
into, I think Churchill's last stand - the struggle to unite Europe is very
appropriate reading! I won't argue about Brexit itself here, but I think some
people would be interested to learn that Britain's greatest statesman in
history (says polls, historians etc) helped to sow the seeds to the European
Union. Winston Churchill did much more than many realise to bring Europe
together, through his speeches, several year long campaigns, lobbying,
utilising his political contacts and so on.
Did he fail? Not really. He wholly understood that a in a more true sense
"united Europe" wouldn't come during his lifetime. Even the EU as it exists now
isn't yet exactly what he strived for for. But he did a lot to start the
process and it is better than nothing, better than organisational chaos, better
than the neo-nationalism (as I call it) we see on the rise.
Churchill would have been absolutely dumbfounded about Brexit.
And I wonder would have happened if Petain hadn't tapped Reynaud's phone
before that cabinet meeting.
--Ahrvid
More about this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Churchills-Last-Stand-Struggle-Europe/dp/1784538132
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