Western Bloc

As the pattern of power politics crystallized in eastern Europe, another pattern was beginning to take shape in the west. Last week Belgium's Foreign Minister, Paul-Henri Spaak, arrived in London to talk western power bloc with Britain's Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden.

His mission had grown out of Eden's pointed hint in a recent House of Commons speech: "We could . . . use our close friendship with these countries [of western Europe] as a buttress to the strengthened general world structure. ... It gives us perhaps more authority with other great powers if we speak for the Commonwealth and for our near neighbors in western Europe" (TIME, Oct. 9). In other words, with the nations of the British Commonwealth and France, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, perhaps Norway and Denmark, girded round her, Britain would be a formidable Continental power.

Spaak, as the representative of a fully liberated country, was the first to come to London. Next, probably, would be Luxembourg's astute Foreign Minister, Joseph Bech. Soon Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden would pay a ceremonial call on General Charles de Gaulle in Paris. Later, when their countries had been freed, the plenipotentiaries of the other Atlantic states would come to London.

The benefits of such a west European power bloc were chiefly political, but there were others: 1) Belgium and Holland have planned a trade agreement which is virtually a customs union, specifically designed with collaboration of France and Britain in mind; 2) Belgium hopes to coordinate her military policy with Britain's, pool her Air Force with the R.A.F.

Some observers linked Britain's acceptance of Soviet policy in Poland and the Balkans with Russia's apparent acceptance of Britain's bloc in the west. Said the London Spectator: "We must accept these things as perfectly natural acts . . . and not suspect that they may be signs of incipient aggression. The Russians, after all, have never questioned our special relationship to northwestern Europe."

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