FEDERAL UNION
The Editor, "The Listener." Sir,-In your issue of April 19 you quote A. P. Herbert as saying, "Last time, she (America), left us with a large baby called the League of Nations; now she is busily engaged in dressing up its poor little corpse and calling it Federal Union." The only conclusion to be drawn from such a statement is that Mr. Herbert had not taken the trouble to acquaint himself with the principles of the proposed Union. When Woodrow Wilson made his proposals, although he was President of the U.S.A., he did not have the support of the people for his scheme. The Federal Union could only come into being if it were voted for by the people. The League of Nations was a body of States with representatives nominated by the Governments of the member countries. Each country, while making promises to support the Covenant, was free to act in any manner which best suited its individual policy. This they all did, so the League is a corpse. The Federal Union takes as its basis the "man"; each individual, be he English, French, American, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Belgian, Irish, Danish, Swiss, or Finnish, has an equal voice in the government of the "Greater Union." The governments of the now separate countries would continue to control their own domestic affairs, but each million, or major fraction thereof, of people, would elect one representative to the Federal Government, and two Senators for each 25 million or fraction. In both cases they would be elected directly by the people. This parliament would have power to control the common defence force, common coinage, common citizenship, common, customs-free, trading system, common postal and communications system. Such a union would have an almost complete control of all the necessities of war, and would be able to make aggression almost impossible — a thing which the League of Nations has never succeeded in doing. Yours, etc.,
FEDERAL UNION
Maraekakaho, April 22, 1940. —
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 47, 17 May 1940, Page 30
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328FEDERAL UNION New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 47, 17 May 1940, Page 30
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