Dear Sir,
It always surprises me that our historians and politicians see Churchill’s 1946 speech on a European Federation out of its historic context (Robert Coulson’s letter headed ‘Churchill on Europe,’ en November 2016) and therefore are unaware of the implied limitations. John W. Wheeler-Bennett had access to the Royal Archives when he wrote King George VI - His life and reign (MacMillan 1958) and discloses three relevant facts.
Firstly, as early as 1940 the King was giving thought to post-war reconstructions and at the King’s command ‘Sir Alexander Hardinge sent to the Foreign Office a memorandum envisaging a joint declaration [by Britain and America] of a voluntary federation of European states after the war, and promising their financial and economic support to such an organisation.’ (p. 508; Royal Archive: G.VI. Conf./244, Sir A. Hardinge to Lord Halifax, August 5, 1940.) This was vetoed by the Foreign Office as inappropriate while America was not in the war.
