Eighty years ago this week Churchill calls for a United States of Europe

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Churchill delivered a speech at the University of Zurich entitled the Tragedy of Europe. He contrasted the ravaged state of most of the continent with the prosperous state of Switzerland and expressed a wish to prevent a recurrence of the war. One avenue that he proposed was a United States of Europe with, as a first practical step, a Council of Europe to direct it. He hoped that the US, Great Britain and, with more good will than realistic expectation,  the Soviet Union could be its friends and sponsors. To many this marked the beginning of the EU although whether he ever contemplated that Britain might be part of it is hotly debated.

Ho-Chi-Minh left France after the failure of the Fontainebleau conference on the future of Indochina conducted under the auspices of France as the colonial power. Some form of self-rule for the poorer provinces of Tonkin and Annam but the wealthy area of Cochin China, which had unilaterally been declared an autonomous republic, would remain a French possession. A vast round-up of people in Cochin China whose papers were deemed not in order led to  50,000 arrests. The victims were  conscripted for force labour on French owned  rubber plantations. 

Crippling food shortage took hold of the Soviet Union after a poor harvest. The price of bread tripled and that of meat doubled. Ration entitlements were cut. One million people died in the ensuing famine.



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