FEDERATION IN EUROPE

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29897, 10 August 1962, Page 11

FEDERATION IN EUROPE

Menzies Worried At Effect (N.Z. Press Assn.— Copyright) CANBERRA, August 9. The Commonwealth would cease to exist as an association of sovereign, self-governing States if Britain joined a European political federation, the Prime Minister (Mr Menzies) said tonight. Mr Menzies said he gathered that Britain did not contemplate the creation of supranational institutions of government in Europe; but he said the political implications of association with Europe brought the danger that national lines would tend to become blurred.

Mr Menzies said that in his four weeks abroad, he conducted close discussions on the Common Market problem in Britain and the United States He said the British Cabinet was impressed by what it believed to be the political advantages for Britain. Europe and the Western world that would flow from British membership. “The basis of this belief is that the old balance-of-power policy, with Britain standing outside Europe, is no longer possible in modern circumstances. and has been falsified twice in this century.” he said.

“The measure of European co-operation already achieved under the Treaty of Rome is already notable and will grow more rapidly with British participation “Britain, as a member of the European community, could exercise a substantial influence in the direction of outward-looking policies and positive resistance to the Communist menace.” Mr Menzies said: “We understand and respect these views but we have never assumed, nor offered to sit in judgment on them. They clearly involve a choice, a most historic and far-reach-ing choice, to be made by Britain herself. “If the choice is made inc favour of entry, the political effect upon Australia and other Commonwealth countries, indeed upon the Commonwealth itself, will materially depend upon the nature of political arrangements which develop inside the extended European community ” Mr Menzies said he gathered that Whitehall did not

contemplate the creation of a supranational government, and there would appear to be some division of opinion among the Six themselves on this matter. “But it does seem that, to take a single example, the right under the treaty to free movement of workers between member States can readily generate political pressures for organic political fusion. Subject to the power of national histories and traditions and prejudices —a power which can easily be underestimated—national lines will tend to become blurred.

“If the processes now going on under the treaty are operated to reduce the possibilities of intra-Western European war, such as the two great and devastating wars of this century, a great thing would have been done for world peace. “What we have sought to make clear is that if Britain went in, and if in the course of time the extended European Economic Community became a European political community with the structure of a federation, the nature of the present Common-wealth would be clearly and materially changed. “In short, if Britain even-

tually became a member State in a European federation, she would no longer be sovereign as the other -Commonwealth countries are. “The Commonwealth would cease to be an association of sovereign and fully self-gov-erning States.” Mr Menzies said he could not deny that such a consequence could be regarded by British statesmen contemplating the importance of European integration as, on balance, acceptable. “But it would be, in our opinion, wrong to pretend that in that event, the nature and structure of the Commonwealth had not changed,” he added. Mr Menzies said he was not able now to expound the present state of the Brussels negotiations. They were clearly far from complete. “But whatever the outcome of the negotiations may be, whatever outline of tentative arrangements may be presented to the Prime Ministers next month, the ultimate decision, when all the arguments have been heard, will be that of Britain, over whom, except for such current and binding agreements as now exist, no meeting of Prime Ministers can exercise a veto.”