Support For E.E.C. Conference Plan

Press, Volume C, Issue 29557, 5 July 1961, Page 15

Support For E.E.C. Conference Plan

(N Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright) MELBOURNE, July 4. Australia was now expected to support Canada’s call for a Prime Ministers’ conference to discuss Britain’s possible entry into the Common Market, the Melbourne “Herald’s” Canberra correspondent reported today.

He said this view would be put to Britain's Commonwealth Relations Minister (Mr Duncan Sandys) when he has talks with the Australian Federal Cabinet in Canberra on Friday. The Canadian Prime Minister (Mr Diefenbaker) suggested last month that a special Commonwealth Prime Ministers' conference be held to consider the question. Early reaction of the Australian Prime Minister (Mr Menzies) was that this would not be practical for him this year, but he would be free to attend a conference early in the new year. The correspondent said there was a growing feeling in Canberra that Mr Sandys’ visit is not concerned so much with hearing the Commonwealth’s views on Britain’s entry to the Common Market, but to break the news that Britain is going to join. In his most forthright statement on the Common

Market. Mr Menzies last night indicated how seriously the Federal Government is worried by the prospects of Britain's entry. He stressed that there were political and economical aspects.

The correspondent said that Mr Menzies' statement indicated that the Australian Government would press very hard for an arrangement under which Commonwealth preferences would be retained. Senior Ministers Mr Menzies, the Minister for Trade (Mr J. McEwen) and all senior ministers, will attend the talks with Mr Sandys. starting on Friday. Mr Sandys will arrive in Canberra late on Thursday. He will be the guest of the United Kingdom High Commissioner (Sir William Oliver). He will be accompanied by the Deputy Under-Secretary of State in the Commonwealth Relations Office (Sir Henry Lintott) and officials from the Board of Trade and Ministry of Agriculture. The secretary of the Australian Department of Trade (Dr. W. A. Westerman) will arrive in Canberra on Saturday from a visit to Britain and the United States. In Britain he discussed implications of Britain joining the Common Market at a senior officer level. Dr. Westerman was accompanied by Secretary of the Department of Primary Industry (Mr J. V. Moroney) Both will be available to be called into Cabinet. Mr Sandys will arrive in Australia after having completed his talks with the New Zealand Government, which almost certainly will be hard-est-hit of any Commonwealth country if Britain joins the Common Market.

Mr Sandys’ talks with the Australian Government are expected to be exploratory

and explanatory. Neither Government is expected to enter into any immediate commitment on any particular commodity, nor will either make any hard and fast announcement after the talks. It is expected that the only press conference Mr Sandys will give will be at Sydney Airport on Thursday immediately after his arrival from New Zealand. Sydney Comment New Zealand was paying the penalty for having leaned too heavily on what used to be called Empire sentiment, the Sydney “Daily Mirror." said in editorial comment on the Common Market discussions in Wellington. In recent years New Zealand had been seeking new markets in Asia, but she had left her run too late, the editorial said. "Her leaders are discovering to their sorrow that when it comes to self-interest, the hard-heads of Whitehall and the shrewd-heads of the City of London deal in a harder currency.” Under the heading. "Come In New Zealand." the editorial said: “All New Zealand seems to have got into a panic over the likelihood of Britain joining the European Common Market “The reason is not far to seek. For many years New Zealand has put nearly all her export eggs in the one basket. Almost entirely a primary producing country, she has relied upon the British market for the sale of nearly all her famed dairy products and fat lambs. "Preferential duties have helped her on thg British market, to which she has loyally shaped her whole economy.

"Now New Zealand is faced with the frightening prospect of competition from European agricultural goods in Britain, and the scales are weighed heavily against her. “Duty-free entry, cheaper costs of production, and lower freight rates would combine to drive her products virtually off the market. New Zealand's farmers would face near-disaster.” Federation Plan The newspaper said: "Towards the end of the last century New -Zealand was represented at some ‘intercolonial conferences' that seriously discussed forming an Australasian federation comprising the six Australian colonies and New Zealand. “It might be a good thing to revive the idea. The speed o2 modem communications has made negligible the distance that separates Australia and the Dominion across the Tasman

“In tradition, language, defence. and the complementary nature of their economies. Australia and New Zealand have enough community of interest to form a Common Market of their own, leading eventually to a new nation of seven states,” the newspaper said. (It was in 1001 that the then Prime Minister, Mr Richard Seddon, appointed a commission to investigate the question of New Zealand's federation with Australia. The commission was also charged with the duty of dis. covering the trend of public opinion on the matter. (“After taking a mass of i evidence both in Australia and New Zealand, the com- : missinners were unanimous :in rejecting a proposal w’hich, had it been mooted earlier, might conceivably [have gained more adherents.” i says R M Burdon in his -book “King Dick.’’)