U.K. And E.E.C. ‘Childish Pride Caused Blunder9

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30289, 15 November 1963, Page 28

U.K. And E.E.C. ‘Childish Pride Caused Blunder 9

(Upecuzl Correspondent N.ZJP.A.) LONDON, November 13. Britain made one of the biggest blunders in her history letting slip the opportunity being one of the founder members of the Common Market, said Dr. Arnold Toynbee in Amsterdam. A childish form of national pride had blinded the British people to what they now saw to be a vital national interest, he said. “The Times’’ Amsterdam .flicts with third countries, he

correspondent says Dr. Toynbee, while expressing the hope the blunder would not be irreparable, suggested Britain’s mistake might serve as a warning to her neighbours. Childish nationalism was no monopoly of any one country, Dr. Toynbee said. “At the moment when Britain was still blind, the Six were already open-eyed,” he said. “They set to work to build a Common Market. “I do hope the Six are not going to turn blind, in their turn, at the moment when the United States is seeing the light," he added. The Dutch Prime Minister, Dr. Marijnen, said the breaking of negotiatioins with Britain created new tensions within the E.E.C., but the initiative of the United States in calling for the Kennedy round had given the Six the opportunity to defend that attitude they intended to adopt. The fundamental problem facing the E.E.C. was to work out a policy whereby development with the Common Market would not cause con-

said. The two men were speaking at the opening banquet of the European-American symposium on agricultural trade.