More fantasy, myths and a history made to measure to suit the United Kingdom Independence Party's gospel. Those are the contents of Mr Derek Bennet's letter (The Sunday Times, September 26).

Mr Bennet claims that when Robert Schuman proposed the Coal and Steel Community, his intention was to create a European superstate. It is obvious that Mr Bennet has never bothered to look into the life and character of the French Foreign Minister nor to understand the motives that prompted the creation of the Coal and Steel Community.

Schuman was not born in a place like Walsall, miles away from Germany and France, safe from German or French aspirations, certainly not a centre of dispute between Britain and Germany or France, for that matter.

Schuman's land of birth was Alsace-Lorraine, a territory that within 70 years changed hands four times. Though French by descent, Schuman was considered German and was conscripted in the German army in World War One. He became a Frenchman only when he was 32.

Alsace-Lorraine represented the European dilemma. Here were people that had fought for both countries and it was not uncommon to find the French military honour, the Legion d'Honneur, sitting on the same mantlepiece with the Iron Cross, the German military medal. This was the region coveted by Germany and France where steel and coal were produced, the raw materials that fuelled the wars between the two countries.

For Schuman the way to free his home territory from this historical "schizophrenic" double act was to propose the fusion of the resources and interests of the two great nations and that is why the European Steel and Coal Community was born. Being an ascetic and religious man, Schuman was prepared to forgive but not to forget the causes of past conflicts.

In Britain, fears, suspicions and distrust of German military intentions remained latent for many years after the last war, despite NATO. A few years ago, during a BBC Reith Lecture entitled "Can there ever be an end to war?" by the military historian John Keegan, members of the audience chose to ask whether the German people would ever change!

If such were the fears in Britain, how much more ingrained were the same fears in France and other continental countries that suffered more at the hands of the Germans than Britain did!

Nothing short of uniting the peoples of Europe in a political and economic framework could prevent future conflicts and provide progress to economic well-being. To say that the reconstruction of Germany and France after the war was enough to remove the old enmities is utter nonsense.

As for the presence of free trade in Europe, this would not be in existence today had there not been established a political enforcing mechanism to regulate the trade. History has shown that no truly free trade area can last unless political union is also an objective.

The harmonisation of corporate taxes is being proposed by the EU because there are large differences in taxation between one country and another. A few years ago corporate tax in Belgium was much lower than in Germany and German firms, as a result, tended to move across the border into Belgium. What the EU is proposing is a maximum and minimum ceiling of corporate tax, which is a sensible idea.

Mr Bennet mentions Gaitskell and other politicians who opposed Britain's membership during the first application by the Macmillan government to join the EU in the 1960s. Gaitskell was inconsistent and fickle on this matter. In June 1962 he told the House of Commons "I have never been much impressed with the argument about loss of sovereignty."

A few months later, he delivered a strong Eurosceptic speech at the Labour Party conference. In private, however, even after his anti-European speech, it was known that he was still hoping for Britain to join the Common Market on the right terms.

One statesman, endowed with foresight and consistent in his views, was Sir Winston Churchill, who not only had proposed the United States of Europe in 1946 but, by 1962, he urged the British government to join the EU. This was confirmed by a letter he sent to the chairman of his constituency's Conservative Association. Britain had been disposing of its Empire and looking for another role in the world. In Churchill's view this role was a leading one in the heart of Europe.

Finally, Mr Bennett would always refrain in his letters from disclosing that the UK applied three times to join the EU and was admitted on the third application. In the 1975 referendum, the British voted by a majority of two to one to stay in the EU.