CONTENT OF PAPERS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29687, 4 December 1961, Page 15

CONTENT OF PAPERS

Information Passed (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, Dec. 3. Britain is passing to Commonwealth countries the full contents of certain working papers as part of an elaborate effort to keep them fully, informed about her European Common Market negotiations, the “Sunday Telegraph” diplomatic correspondent said today “An example, I understand, is the list of commodities for which Jritain, on the Commonwealth's behalf, is asking the Six to agree to zero or near-zero duties,” the correspondent wrote. “Apart from the five basic items of lead, zinc, aluminium, newsprint and woodipulp, the British application is thought to include raw silk and a variety of fibres. “A full copy of this list is reported to have been given by the British delegation at the Common Market talks to the Commonwealth envoys in Brussels.” The correspondent said there was little in the list that would be news to the Commonwealth countries “as the British application is the result of inter-Common-wealth consultation.” But its “private distribution” illustrated once again the practical impossibility of treating the Common Market negotiations as secrets “privy to those taking part.” The “Sunday Telegraph" said that in addition to the occasional circulation of documents, it was understood that Britain was giving almost rightly oral accounts of the day’s proceedings to the Commonwealth's Brussels envoys. A Deputy Under Secretary of State at the British Commonwealth Relations Office, Sir Henry Lintott, was also making special trips from Brussels every few days to give separate briefingr to High Commissioners in London.