 Having been too young to fight in World War II (although greatly affected by it), he heard Winston Churchill's call for a United States of Europe in September 1946, and devoted much of his career to bringing this about.He was opposed to the British intervention in Suez in 1956, but a strong supporter of Britain's entry into the then Common Market in 1973,and a leading campaigner to keep the country there in the 1975 referendum.A fluent German and French speaker, he particularly admired the way that the Germans had reconstructed their country and developed a peaceful, stable and well-run political system in the aftermath of 1945.