“ATLANTIC UNION”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29383, 9 December 1960, Page 9

“ATLANTIC UNION”

Opposition By Mr Macmillan

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, Dec. 6.

The Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan) told the House of Commons today that he did not belive in “Atlantic union” between Britain and the United States because it would mean leaving out the Commonwealth and Europe. He was answering a question by Mr Woodrow Wyatt (Labour) who asked him to amplify “his recent official proposal that there should eventually be a merger between Great Britain and the United States.” Mr Macmillan referred him to a reply he gave last week, when he denied having stated that there should eventually be a merger between Britain and the United States. Mr Macmillan went on: “I do not believe in Atlantic union, which has always been taken, to mean a merger or combination between the United Kingdom and the United States.

“Such a concept would mean leaving out not only the Commonwealth but also Europe and be wholly' unacceptable. “I do believe in working for continually closer co-operation in all these fields I between various nations or groups of nations of importance in the free world. “I am bound to say that if we do not gradually move in that direction our chances of winning this great struggle will be correspondingly reduced.”