Britain, Europe - and some Malta : Britain's political chastity

Abstract

WHAT can one possibly say about the Commonwealth or Europe has not been said so many times before? The Labour Party is out, the Conservative Party in : once again, as under the Tories, as under the Labour Party, and now once more under Mr. Heath, we are to "negotiate for entry into the European Common Market". But what are the negotiations really about? And why do I feel uneasy? True, a great part of my life has been spent beyond the political frontiers of our own continent, in those extensions of the European world which were once called Dominions and colonies; but the debt that is closest to my heart and mind, for what I am-such as I am-is certainly to Europe: to Shakespeare, Brunelleschi, Bach, Rembrandt, Beethoven, to Berlioz, Tolstoi, the Impressionists; and nearer my own day, to Conrad, Valery, Mann, Gide, Rodin and Moore. Is it then the dark side of Europe that troubles me, the terrible violence of its wars, the gas chambers, and the passions which-over the greater part of the continent-produced communism, fascism and nazism as rival claimants to men's loyalties? No: I do not fear a reputation of 1914 or 1939 or of the inter-war years. And even if those days were to return, the Europe of the Six, or even of the Seven, or of other efforts at co-operation, would not at all be like they are today; nor, I trust, would this country be part of their politics. No: the unease that I cannot escape comes partly from uncertainty- I simply do not know what will be meant one day by joining or having joined Europe: partly from my limited understanding of what I fear may happen.