On 4 March 1948, British cartoonist Leslie Gilbert Illingworth illustrates the hopes raised by the forthcoming establishment of a Western Union, in which France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg would participate. On 17 March 1948, in Brussels, these countries sign the Treaty of Economic, Social and Cultural Collaboration and Collective Self-Defence. The photo shows British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin (on the left) and his French counterpart Georges Bidault (on the right).