Western European Union and Brussels Treaty

A file of correspondence and memoranda concerning arrangements for the Brussels Treaty of 1948, which laid the foundations for the European Union. Documents in this file include memoranda setting out the economic need for a customs union, and the strategic necessity of preventing the domination of Western Europe by a superpower; a memorandum repeating a speech by Ernest Bevin, the Foreign Secretary, outlining his conception of a possible European Union, stating the British need of an economic recovery, and giving the case for and against a customs union; further memoranda by Bevin commenting on this speech; memoranda discussing the means by which a customs union could be set up, and the economic situation of the United Kingdom; memoranda discussing specific points of negotiation, such as the necessity of not provoking the Soviet Union; and security arrangements for the negotiations, including limiting press access and the encoding of communications.