Unity and Hope

Lady Astor listened, looked, was amazed: "Really, this is a most interesting House of Commons. If Europe has changed as much ... we can hope for permanent peace."

The members, having heard Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden make a report that read like a compendium of communiques from Teheran and Cairo, had turned to an exploration of future British policy. What startled the incredulous Nancy was the way Tories, Independents, Laborites agreed that Britain must: 1) revive its faith in the Commonwealth, take steps to strengthen and streamline it; 2) extend the Commonwealth to the little democracies of Western Europe, lend every aid to rebuild France so that she "can have an honored place in the group."

To Lady Astor and many another listener last week it was plain that Britons are examining the prospects of peace with greater unity and hope than they have had before. It was also plain that the same heady wine was working elsewhere:

The Australians. Reversing the line it had followed since 1941, Australia's Labor Conference, which is essentially Australia's Government, abandoned isolation. Prime Minister John Curtin, until now kept at home by decree of his party, asked for and got permission to travel; Australia's voice would be heard in the new world now being shaped. In Washington, Ottawa, London, not long after the turn of the year, John Curtin would have his say on a better-integrated British Commonwealth, a position of dominance in the Pacific for Australia.

The Belgians. In the London tabloid Daily Sketch, which is more given to scandal than to politics, appeared a political piece. It said that Belgium, in exchange for certain guarantees, might become a member of the Commonwealth. The story was a slightly garbled version of a speech by Antoine Delfosse, Belgian Minister of Information. Other Belgian officials, who knew they could make no such bargain until their people were free to approve, or disapprove, were horrified.

The Dutch. In London, an official of the exiled Netherlands Government admitted thoughts of getting closer to the British. He was not ready to say that the realistic Dutch would go lock, stock and colonies into the Commonwealth; he did believe that his country would not again try to go it alone.

People who want security and permanent peace were extending groping hands.

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