The Common Market WHY BRITAIN HAS DECIDED TO JOIN

Press, Volume C, Issue 29604, 29 August 1961, Page 14

The Common Market WHY BRITAIN HAS DECIDED TO JOIN

tA letter to the editor ot “The Timer” from LORD PLOWDEN and SIR GEOFFREY CROWTHER!

We are disturbed by the extent to which public discussion of the great question of Britain and Europe is being clouded by political myths and ' economic illusions. May we make an attempt to re-state the centra issue? The British economic problem is much more difficult than the public has yet realised. Once again, in an expanding world. Britain faces cuts and restrictions. It must now be clear that the easy years were an illusion, and that we have not made nearly as much progress as we thought we had in escaping from the strait-jacket in which we ended the war. The only way out, now as then, lies in an increase in our exports. Unless we can sell a great deal more to the outside world, we shall live in an atmosphere of restrictions and recriminations for the rest of our lives, whatever the party in power. "Either exports go up or Britain goes down.” For a massive increase in our exports to be possible we require access to a mass market. This is what membership of the European Economic Community would give us—increasingly free access to the world’s second largest market for manu. factures. If we refuse to apply for membership, or fail to secure it, things will not remain as they are; we shall progressively lose the share of the European market that we now have. What alternative markets are there that could conceivably match this opportunity, or replace this loss? The United States? We must

make every effort to sell in tha American market but there is no visible prospect of securing free access to it. The Seven? We must try to carry them with us but by themselves they are too small. The Commonwealth? Even if it were wide open to our manufactures can it command the purchasing power to provide an alterna-

tive without massive injections of capital for development? And will there be enough capital without a large British export surplus? In any case, is there any sign of the Commonwealth offering us a Common Market? Canada has turned the idea down out of hand. Australia and the other Commonwealth countries have never hesitated to protect themselves against our exports. It is their undoubted right to do so, but can they object if we also take such steps as are necessary for our economic salvation? To ask these questions is not to decry the spiritual, political and social values of the Commonwealth. It is simply to face the economic facts—the facts as they are, not as we would like them to be. It is true that access to the European Common Market will not guarantee an increase in British exports. Competition in the Common Market will be severe and we shall have to learn to be efficient, which may be painful. But if the E.E.C. will impose discipline on us, it also offers the opportunity of ex. pansion, and the two together are what we so badly need. What other polity, looked at realistically and not through a cloud of wishful thinking, gives us an equal chance? Of course the Common Market has all sorts of disadvantages. But the essen. tial issue is not whether it would be an unqualified boon but whether we can stand the consequences of staying out. With access to the E.E.C. we have the possibility of solving our problem. and maintaining the high standard of living in this island. Without it tht prospect before Britain is of being pushed increasingly into a backwater. We shall, no doubt, from our backwater, continue to claim the respect that is due to the leader of the Commonwealth. But if we cannot earn our keep, it will be an empty title. What good did it do the Sultan of Turkey, in the end, to be the Caliph of Islam?