Defeat of the Hecklers

Winston Churchill and 140 other advocates of European unity last week gathered in Brussels for the first International Council of the European Movement (an outgrowth of the Congress of Europe last year at The Hague). Brave and lofty words were spoken at Brussels, some of them in Mr. Churchill's makeshift French, but the gap between this private crusade and government action remained as wide as ever.

Apparently Moscow, fearing anti-Communist speeches, sent orders to the Brussels comrades to make nuisances of themselves. When Churchill rose to address an open-air throng of 15,000 in front of the Brussels bourse, about 150 Red hecklers scattered through the crowd tried to drown him out with shouted insults, catcalls, whistles. Leaflets were circulated declaring that "Belgian workers would never take arms against their brothers in the Soviet Union and the people's democracies." The Brussels police, anticipating disturbance and well prepared for it, hustled off the troublemakers without difficulty. Churchill placidly smiled through the tumult with a cigar in one hand, a bunch of tulips in the other.

When it came his turn to speak, Belgium's Premier Paul-Henri Spaak told the comrades off. The Red hecklers, he said, were typical of the small pro-Soviet minority in Europe who, blindly obedient to a "foreign power," always tried to drown out the voice of the majority. The crowd roared approval.

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