June 25, 2008

Churchill Asserts A Unified Europe Can Bar Tyranny

A long and hilarious argument has sprung up between Dirty European Socialist and the rest of the world on the Devil's blog. DES does not seem to understand that misspelling everything while calling everybody 'NAZI peado creeps' is not a good way of making people take your points seriously. Not that he/she/it has many. Anyway as part of the argument Dirty points to three articles to try and show that Winston Churchill was in actual fact all in favour of the EU. The first one was behind the New York Times pay wall so in the interests of discussion I'm going to transcribe the text here.




http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C14F73B59157A93C1A81783D85F4D8485F9

Churchill Asserts A Unified Europe Can Bar Tyranny



Gets Ovation from 30,000 in Strasbourg as He Expresses Confidence in the Future



GAINS ASSEMBY VICTORY



Time Limit on Agenda Items Removed to Let German Admission Be Raised



The text of Mr. Churchill's address is printed on Page 3.



By Lansing Warren, Special to the New York Times.



Strasbourge, France, Aug 12 - Speaking in French here on a balcony above the Place Kleber tonight, Winston Churchill drew an ovation from a crowd of 30,000 when he said it was possible to organize Western Europe to resist the threat of tyranny.
Mr. Churchill, who is here participating in the first sessions of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, was addressing a meeting organized by the European movement, which he helped found.

"It is not against any race or nation that we range ourselves," he said. "It is against tyranny in all its forms ancient and modern, new or old, that we stand upright and unflinching. Tyranny is always the same, whatever slogans it offers, whatever name it calls itself, whatever liveries it wears."

Discusses Dangers Ahead



Mr. Churchill's French, though tinged at times by a British accent, was very good. After speaking of a long religious, dynastic and nationalistic wars that Europe had experienced, he asked:

"Are we to sink, after all our victories and sufferings, into final chaos through ideological wars thrust upon us by barbarous and wicked oligarchies whose fifth-column agents are infiltrating into many lands?"

"I feel sure," he answered to his own question, "that we have it in our power, if it is also our will, to come through the perils which still confront us. * * * In all this we are moving with the support of the mighty republic across the Atlantic and of the powerful self-governing states and members of the British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations."
In conclusion Mr. Churchill stated:

"Our dangers are great, but so is our strength, and there is no reason why we should not achieve the aim and design of united Europe, whose moral conceptions will win the respect and gratitude of mankind and whose physical strength will be such that none will dare molest her tranquil sway."

Mr. Churchill spoke from a flag-draped window above the square.

Other speakers at the rally were Paul Reynaud, war Premier of France; Hendrik Brugmans, Netherlands statesman; Stefano Jacini, Italian Senator just selected one of the vice presidents of the Council of Europe; Ole Kraft of Denmark, another vice president, and Paul-Henri Spaak of Belgium, permanent president of the Consultative Assembly.

All spoke with fervor in the belief that if the Council of Europe obtained wide popular support it might lead the Western countries to salvation. All felt that Strasbourg was the predestined centre from which a European union could be made to spring. They called for help and for popular faith in their endeavors.

M. Reynaud mad a plea or practical examination of Europe's problems, saying there must first be a decision on her type of future economy and then a political accord.

Lord Layton, British Liberal publisher, who was chosen yesterday as one of the vice presidents, stressed this need. He said the European Marshall Plan Council was in difficulties because there was no political accord.

"Political consolidation," he said, "must precede real integration unless each is quite certain that those with whom he is associated will be on his side in time of trouble. There must be a political basis for this organization."

Assembly Agenda Remains Open.



At today's session of the Consultative Assembly Mr. Churchill won another victory when he obtained removal of the limit imposed on introducing new items to the agenda.

He thus kept open the possibility of asking for admission of Germany to the Council of Europe provided that Sunday's election and the beginnings of the new German State appear to be propitious. Mr Churchill told the Assembly that he was undecided whether this should be done and asked for "reasonable latitude before we are compelled to put any proposals on paper."
"There is a question of Germany, a grave matter," he said, "and obviously the life of united Europe depends upon our association in some for or other with Germany."

He added that it would not be wise for the Assembly to take a decision while the German elections were going on and for this reason he pressed for an extension of the three-day limit placed upon requests for new items on the Assembly's agenda.
A Compromise was engineered by M. Spaak who obtained from the Rules Committee of the Assembly the mission of negotiating with the Foreign Ministers Committee.

Although the Ministers will leave here Sunday for their capitals, they have agreed to receive from M. Spaak any new proposals from the Assembly and deliver their replies within five days. Mr. Churchill will therefore have time to deliberate before he asks for the admission of Western Germany.

Some observers thought Mr. Churchill's remarks might influence the German election.

Addressing the meeting in the Place Kleber, M. Reynaud gave the French answer to Mr Churchill's proposal when he said France was ready to cooperate with Germany, but that in the view of all that had happened in the past she would wish to have decided proof that Germany would be sincere before she was invited.

The Assembly today received thirteen suggestions for the agenda from its members in addition to three submitted to it by Ministers. Some of these overlap and a small committee was appointed to re-draft them in a more compact form so that the Assembly could decide in successive vots tomorrow what items would receive the necessary two-thirds vote to obtain submission to the Ministers Committee. The Ministers by a two-thirds vote in their turn have the right to accept or reject these proposals.

The chief items are one for a study of changes in Europe's political structure to pave the way for unity and another is the proposed accord for a human rights agreement that Ministers rejected.
Mr. Churchill today sharply insisted hat, although he thought that military topics should be barred from the Assembly, he saw no reason why all the other matters should not be discussed, and he was particularly severe in his criticism of the two-thirds rule.

M. Spaak adroitly steered the Assembly towards agreement today, with the prospect that the Ministers will have the Assembly's proposals complete by tomorrow night and will thus be able to disband on Sunday, leaving the Assembly to a three-week session.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your pathetic euro skeptics allegations continue. By the way I only called people who insulted me, with deeply offensive terms, paedo creeps. So your pretence high moral ground is pathetic.
So your article prooves that Churchill supported a european federation. He said in numerous memos in government that he supported european integration. But you continue to ignore these statements.
He once said.
"I am a European," and would think of themselves as much European as of their native land.
He talked of united states of europe in the 30s.
He wrote memos in the government supporting european integration. I knopw of no serious histroian who claims my facts to be wrong.

10:45 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excuse me are you pro european or against europe. I am sorry if you pro european. I am on the defensive. NAy way I called people peado creeps if they insulted me. And some nutters were trying to trace my IP so they could kill me.

10:50 am  
Blogger chris said...

Europe is a continent. It is impossible to be either before or against it. I am against the EU though.

5:40 pm  

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