From Necessity to Possibility

At the wind-up session of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (TIME, Aug. 22 et seq.), Belgium's owlish Paul-Henri Spaak, Assembly president, rose to make his farewell speech. Although the big conference hall was uncomfortably hot, the 101 delegates from twelve nations got to their feet and stood for the entire 20 minutes of Spaak's address. Said President Spaak: "I came here with the conviction that a United States of Europe is necessary. I leave with the certitude that a United States of Europe is possible."

Although the Council, so far, had none but persuasive powers it had become a fixture on the world scene. It approved a standing committee of 28 to function between Assembly sessions. Its most important resolution was a call for European economic union, to be helped by the U.S.

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