‘Little Choice For U.K. On E.E.C.’

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29778, 22 March 1962, Page 13

‘Little Choice For U.K. On E.E.C.’

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) MELBOURNE, March 21. The Australian Trade Minister (Mr McEwen) might find more support in Paris, Brussels and Bonn for his Common Market hopes than in London, according to Douglas Wilkie, a special correspondent of the Melbourne "Sun.”

Wilkie has gone to Europe with Mr McEwen to report on his Common Market negotiations.

community define a common attitude towards countries outside the trading area. “And, according to the leaders of the Six, they themselves are well aware of the political value of the Commonwealth to the Western world. . . ." Wilkie said this was a somewhat different picture from that presented by the British Government. “It seems to have sought to sidestep its critics by quietly sliding into the Common Market and letting it be known that if there should be any sound of angry scuffling, this is solely due to Britain’s manoeuvres on behalf of the Commonwealth,” he said. Mr McEwen and the British Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan) conferred at lunch yesterday. A new phase of Britain’s negotiations with the European Common Market, directly affecting Canadian products, has prompted next week’s visit to Ottawa of Britain’s chief Common Market negotiator, Mr Edward Heath.

This situation, he said, would shock many Australians, and would shock many Britons because the British Government had deliberately withheld from the British people “the subscription fee” which Britain would have to pay to join the Common Market. Wilkie said: “It has failed to admit publicly that Britain’s only freedom of choice left in the matter is the freedom to quit “In fact Britain cannot afford to quit, and the six European nations already enjoying the tremendous advantages of the market—in the warm glow of United States approval—have no intention of granting Britain special terms of entry. “Only when Britain has entered the market on equal terms will the European

informants quoted by the Canadian Press said today that the visit of Mr Heath was arranged at the British Government’s request in view of certain approaching negotiations. This was not elaborated.