Beschreibung:

CHURCHILL, Winston S. Typescript signed ("Winston S. Churchill"), "The United States of Europe," n.d. [ca. 1930-31] 9 pages. 4to, punch hole with string clasp at top left corner , CHURCHILL'S EXTENSIVE AUTOGRAPH EMENDATIONS THROUGHOUT.
CHURCHILL, Winston S. Typescript signed ("Winston S. Churchill"), "The United States of Europe," n.d. [ca. 1930-31] 9 pages. 4to, punch hole with string clasp at top left corner , CHURCHILL'S EXTENSIVE AUTOGRAPH EMENDATIONS THROUGHOUT. CHURCHILL'S SKEPTICISM ABOUT EARLY PLANS FOR A EUROPEAN UNION French diplomat Aristide Briand drafted a "Memorandum on the Organisation of a System of European Federal Union" and submitted it to the League of Nations in 1930. Churchill has his doubts. "The idea of having one coinage," he writes, "even with varying descriptions; one postage stamp, though with different heads upon it...is as repugnant...as having to learn as a common language Volapuk or Esperanto... Friction, unrest, alarms, exclusive dealings, racial antipathy, are still absorbing a very large proportion of the economic life-thrust of Europe." Then, as now, he thinks England "could never be wholly merged in, nor wholly divorced from, a European union." But he thinks it is an idea that must ultimately come to fruition. Churchill the historian rightly points out that European confederations of one kind or another have been the norm on the continent rather than the exception. But Churchill as Cassandra proved tragically mistaken: "No violent upheaval will occur to stop or deflect the steady movement of European thought...The horrors of Armageddon are our present guarantee of peace."