Friedrich Returns; Worked ON European Constitution

Carl J. Friedrich, professor of Government, returned form Brussels, Belgium, yesterday, where he helped formulate a united European constitution.

Invited by Paul Henri Spaak to counsel a pre-constitutional convention, Friedrich and Robert R. Bowie, professor of Law, advised the group on federal systems in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Germany. From these examples, the two offered suggestions for an effective European authority.

As Advisors

"The constitutional assembly," said Friedrich, "is like the American meeting at Annapolis before the Philadelphia convention in 1789." This body, he disclosed, will submit a draft of the constitution to the Schumann Plan Assembly on October 23, who will then offer a final copy to the parliaments of France, Germany, Italy, and the Benelux nations.

A governing law grew out of the need for a control on the European army, stated Friedrich. Italy's premier DiGasperi therefore proposed a constitutional assembly to have final authority. Friedrich feels DiGasperi and other Europeans feared that England and the United States would take advantage of their weakness and impose policies on their army, if they did not organize a legislative body.

From DiGasperi's plan, which was included in the treaty between these six countries, an ad hoc assembly was appointed to formulate a basic governing document.

Spaak, who is president of the temporary assembly, then called in government and legal experts to help draw up the constitution. "We just acted as advisers," said Friedrich. "We felt it was up to them to decide the form of government they wanted." Friedrich, however, was the architect for the first rough draft of the law.

When Spaak visited Harvard last spring, he claimed that Great Britain "no vent pas" to take part in such a constitutional assembly.