MUST THE WEST DECLINE?

The one-time ambassador to the United States from Britain presents, in what may have been a speech or a series of speeches, a cogent argument for saving the West from the decline that many feel inevitable. He sees the Western civilization as of paramount importance if the individual is to be preserved. Under this classification he lines up those nations dedicated to some phase of democracy, of the rule of law, of a judiciary independent of an executive, of the theory of equality before the law, of freedom of speech, worship and association. These hard won rights of the individual may be lost because they have not been fully implemented. Two World Wars, the malignant growth of Nazism, the strengthening, rather than weakening of the concept of nationalism, an economic crisis that rocked the world--all these are viewed by the other nations, old and new, as symptoms of decline and failure, despite good neighborliness, the Marshall Plan, the international monetary fund, the set-backs of the UN, the lessening value of NATO. Communism he views as the sole real threat, with its attraction for the underdeveloped nations in the dramatic economic growth. Our solution lies, he feels, in merging sovereignty for the common interest, in a feasible United Western Europe, in a real Atlantic Community--on one side Britain as a full member of the Western community, and the USA and Canada working together; in a functioning international monetary policy, trade policy, and harmony of political objectives. The alternative? Competitive nationalism and the decline of the West...While there is nothing revolutionarily new here, he sums up convictions most of us share. Worth reading.