‘General Report of the Committee for European Economic Cooperation’

After Secretary of State George C. Marshall had delivered his Harvard Speech, the French and British government took the initiative to assemble the European nations for a conference in Paris. Together, they deliberated a plan for Europe’s economic recovery that could be presented to the American government. On the one hand the plan set out…

Trade and Payments Arrangements – OEEC Trade and Finance Directorate

In the wake of Paul G. Hoffman’s speech for the Council of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), several proposals for a new system of intra-European payments were advanced. The proposal by the Trade and Finance Directorate of the General Secretariat was drafted by Frank Figgures and circulated on 1 December 1949. For the…

Benelux Plan for Multilateral Payments

Based on the ideas of H.M. Hirschfeld and Hubert Ansiaux, the Benelux put forth the idea to create a system of multilateral payments between the members of the Committee for European Economic Cooperation (CEEC) in Paris. Eventually, the plan gave impetus to the Multilateral Monetary Compensation Agreement in November 1947, which was the first intra-European…

Alphand Plan for European Customs Union

During the conference of the sixteen nations in Paris, Hervé Alphand, who was part of the French delegation, proposed the creation of a European customs union. His ideas gave impetus to the creation of the European Customs Union Study Group (ECUSG). For the blueprint click here. The blueprint is courtesy of the Dutch National Archive…

Bissell Plan for a ‘European Clearing Union (ECU)’

In the wake of Paul G. Hoffman’s speech for the Council of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), several proposals for a new system of intra-European payments were advanced. The proposal by Richard M. Bissell on behalf of the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) aimed at full intra-European currency transferability before the end of the…

Principles of Reconstruction

In this blueprint, William Temple, at the time of writing Archbishop of York in the Church of England, sketched an array of principles which in his view should guide post-war reconstruction. (Note that the United Kingdom was officially at war with Nazi Germany at this point, although the Battle of Britain would not be fought…

Letter to Percy Corbett

Adam von Trott zu Solz was a German nobleman and a leading member of the Resistance group known as the Kreisau Circle. In this letter, Von Trott reflects from the point of view of this group on a book titled Post-War Worlds, written by Percy E. Corbett, a Canadian international law scholar (at the time at…

Some Considerations Concerning the Post-War Settlement

Visser ‘t Hooft wrote this blueprint in collaboration with three other authors. He indicates that they were from ‘two main belligerent countries, a neutral country, and an occupied country’. Visser ‘t Hooft himself, a Dutchman, belonged to the latter category. Notes by archivists and other researches in the document point to the possible names of…

The Church and the New Order in Europe

Bonhoeffer wrote this blueprint in his native German, but Visser ‘t Hooft translated it to English and expanded on it. It comments on a blueprint in book form written by the leader of the Peace Aims Group in Britain, William Paton, titled The Church and the New Order (London: SCM Press, 1941). Bonhoeffer and Visser…

What Scandinavia Can Do!

This blueprint by Lutheran Bishop of Oslo Eivind Berggrav is an example of a strategy that some ecumenists still employed shortly before the Second World War broke out: trying to negotiate with Hitler’s regime and demand that the neutrality of the Scandinavian countries be respected. Meanwhile, however, realizing that these neutral countries had become a…