Commonwealth's Worries Assessed

Press, Volume C, Issue 29682, 28 November 1961, Page 17

Commonwealth 's Worries Assessed

(N.Z Press Association —Copyright)

LONDON, November 27. Australia, New Zealand and Canada were mainly worried about the weakening of Commonwealth ties if Britain joined the Common Market, the “Financial Times’’ said in a special review, “The Challenge of Europe,” today.

Australia and New Zealand felt vaguely that there was a risk of international isolation if their special association with the Commonwealth and particularly with the United Kingdom was in any way impaired. Canada's special fear was that the pull from the south would grow stronger if the Commonwealth bonds became looser, the review said. The review said it was very fortunate that it now seemed to be accepted on the Continent that any violent disruption of the Commonwealth trading patterns would be in no one’s interests except the Communists New Zealand, as was well known, was the main potential sufferer regarding her exports of temperate zone fxxistuffs. But the Six had already tacitly agreed that New Zealand should be regarded as a special case, the review said. The Six had no real interest in interfering with New Zealand lamb exports to Britain. Britain was the only major export market for lamb and New Zealand was the only major supplier. It was unprofitable at this stage to speculate how New Zealand’s special interests were . going to be safeguarded, particularly in the case of butter, the review said. Nor was it possible to say how far the rather more marginal interests of the Australian soft wheat producers and dairy farmers were going to be affected. The review said that tn examining the Commonwealth trade position, it hoped to confirm Whitehall s cautious optimism that a settlement in Brussels was g,ing to be achieved. The 72-page survey contained articles by European s alesmen including the Insn

Prime Minister, Mr Sean Lemass. and Foreign Affairs and other Ministers of the Common Market and European Free Trade Association nations. The West German Economics Minister and ViceChancellor, Dr. Ludwig Erhard, writing on the E.E.C.’s effects on his country, said it had been “helped by the great influx of workers from abroad, primarily from E.E.C countries.” He added: “More than 270.000 workers from these countries were employed in Germany during the summer. Something like a European labour market has grown up with unexpected speed. "Once every country no longer needs to rely exclusively upon its own labour supply, production in the whole of Europe will become more elastic and more adaptable.” The United States Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs, Mr George Ball, rejected suggestions that the United States had brought pressure on Britain to join the Common Market and sa:d its support for the European community “has stemmed primarily from a political conviction.” He continued: “We have seen the community as a means of institutionalising the understanding between France and Germany and thus putting an end to a long history of dangerous frictions. We have seen it also as a means of tying Germany securely to the West “By joining the Common Market. Britain can assure a much greater measure of European cohesiveness,” Mr Ball wrote. “At the same time it can bring to the task of building a strong Europe the British genius for political affairs which has contributed so much to our own American heritage.”