OFFER TO DENMARK

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30042, 29 January 1963, Page 13

OFFER TO DENMARK

U.K. To Be Consulted

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

PARIS, Jan. 28

The Danish Prime Minister (Mr Jens Otto Krag) said yesterday his Government would make no decision on its relations with the Common Market until he had seen the British Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan) in London later this week.

Mr Krag said he had explained this clearly to President de Gaulle when the French leader told him that, if Britain’s entry application failed, Denmark could have full or associate market membership, which would cover agriculture. He said he had emphasised to President de Gaulle that Denmark considered it very important Britain should enter the market as soon as possible. Mr Krag said the President spoke of his conviction that the time must come when both the Americans and the Russians would withdraw from Europe. President de Gaulle had said this prospect called for new groupings of European nations which were formerly unthinkable. Hence today the close union of France and Germany, and hence, no doubt tomorrow the union of Europe and Britain. Mr Krag, who is in Paris on a private visit arranged long before the present Common Market crisis, made it clear his Government would not lend itself to any attempt to play off Denmark against Britain.

French official sources also seemed anxious to deny any suggestions that the French Government would try to do this. They emphasised that the French Government had never been, and was not now, prepared in principle to more European Governments joining the market as long as they accepted in the letter and the spirit the Treaty of Rome and the common agricultural policy established as an integral part of the treaty.