Not Mortal Blow, Heath Tells House

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30045, 1 February 1963, Page 9

Not Mortal Blow, Heath Tells House

(KUA. -Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, January 31

The breakdown in the Brussels talks was a bitter blow but not a mortal one, Britain’s

chief Common Market negotiator, Mr Edward Heath, said yesterday to a crowded House of Commons only a few hours after he returned from the Continent.

Mr Heath told the House: ‘The governments of five member States of the European community. whose people number 120,000,000, have clearly shown that they are among those who share with us the common view of the Europe we want to see. There is a foundation of friendship and goodwill for the future.”

The Labour foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Harold Wilson, said no British Minister must ever again be put in a position of waiting outside in the cold. Mr Heath retorted there had been nothing humiliating in what had happened in Brussels.

Mr Wilson praised Mr Heath for his industry and patience and “not least his restraint in these very difficult past days.” In the House of Lords, the Leader of the Opposition (Viscount Alexander) appealed to the Government to “embark on a policy which will show that we are no more afraid of the future than when France broke and we faced the world alone during World War II.” Lord Hailsham, the Government's spokesman in the Upper House, could not agree the situation was comparable with the crisis of 1940, but he said this was an important oc-

casion for a reappraisal of Britain’s policies. He thought the Government, the Opposition, and the people wanted time to consider calmly what the implications were.

Mr Heath, talking to a crowded press conference before he reported to the House of Commons, said it was “not possible for one country in the Common Market to offer Britain associate status.”

If the e was to be any alternative arrangement, it would have to be with the Common Market as a whole. He pointed out that the British Government had negotiated, without success, for association in 1958. The Danish Prime Minister (Mr Jens Otto Krag) has arrived in London for talks with Mr Macmillan. What the seven partners of the European Free Trade Area can do will dominate their discussions.

Only last week. President de Gaulle offered Denmark full Common Market membership if she wanted it. Mr Krag said yesterday that it was inconceivable in the present situation to join the market without Britain.

Message From

Macmillan

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON. Jan. 31.

The Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) said today that he had received a personal message from the British Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan) about the breakdown of the Brussels negotiations. Like other communications of this kind, it was a personal and confidential message and he would not release it, said Mr Holyoake. Mr Macmillan had emphasised that the collapse of the negotiations, which had gone a long way towards reaching solutions, should not be regarded as a disaster, but rather as a great opportunity missed.