ARGUMENTS TO JOIN ‘SIX’

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30681, 22 February 1965, Page 13

ARGUMENTS TO JOIN ‘SIX’

I.V.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

LONDON, February 7 21. Economic arguments suggest strongly that Britain should seek entry to the Common Market as soon as possible, the “Observer” said in an editorial today.

the unity of the Atlantic world might be militating against the new policy of reaching agreement with the Soviet Union. It was beginning to become apparent that if the United States pressed ahead with Atlantic unity—which meant in effect harnessing the resurgent strength of Western Europe to the already vast strength of the United States —the result could endanger the essential parity of power between East and West on which the prospect for Sov-iet-American co-operation so obviously depended. “In the context of a SovietAmerican attempt to act as policemen of the world, the only chance Britain and Western Europe have of protecting their own interests is to act in concert. “Only a united Western Europe, with the two European nuclear powers acting together, can possibly be strong enough to influence the decisions of the two giants, once they, for their part, decide to act in unison,” Worshorne said.

The question Britons should now be considering was not whether Britain should again apply for membership. but what sort of European set-up would contribute most to preservation of peace, the editorial said. “Britain is already part of Europe in the sense that what happens there—economically and politically—is bound to affect us profoundly. On the other hand, the new Europe is only nowbeginning to take shape, and Britain’s own policies will be among the factors which will determine the final pattern,” it went on. The editorial said Britain’s interest in continental Europe seemed to perk up whenever the country was in difficulties. U.S. Attitude A “Sunday Telegraph" writer. Peregrine Worstthorne. said the principal new reason why it was necessary to reopen the question of Britain moving closer to the Six was that the United States, seen from London, was beginning to look much. less satisfactory as an allyl than at any time since the alliance began. In the interval since de Gaulle blocked Britain's last attempt to join, little had changed fundamentally in| Paris, but a great deal had | changed in Washington. The fundamental change! was that China had become America’s main long-term potential enemy and Russia America’s main potential longterm partner. Worstthorne said it was beginning to dawn on Washington’s policy makers that the old policy of building up