Ill Wind from Europe

By HENRY FAIRLIE

MR. MACMILLAN has commented more than once on the peculiar horrors of a modern statesman's life. Especially, there is the flight back after a protracted negotiation, when he hopes only for a bath and some sleep. Instead, as soon as he puts his foot to the ground, he must face the television cameras, looking alert, con- fident and clean-shaven.

After the long night sessions at Brussels, I must admit, I have sometimes sat before my television set, hoping to catch Mr. Edward Heath for once bleary-eyed and for once with six o'clock (a.m.) shadow on his chin. But, no. He is still the boy who has made good from down the street. Unruffled and with an obvious mastery of his subject, he meets every question straightforwardly, and brings the interview to an end with the reminder that he is on his way to Chequers and must make his main report to the Prime Mittister there.

All this is only the public exhibition of qualities which anyone who has followed the Brussels negotiations carefully has learned to admire, and which some of us had come to admire even before. It is remarkable how he has impersonalised himself during the negotiations, in a way that Mr. Maudling never succeeded in doing during his negotiations first with the Six and then with the EFTA neutrals. He has never publicly displayed disappointment or impatience —not, even now, with the French—and never allowed his disappointment or impatience to 'leak.'

Nothing could be more reassuring. The worst thing now would be for the British case to be in the hands of a Minister whom tiredness and disappointment had upset. Mr. Heath, one can be sure, will return to his task next month as quietly and firmly determined as he has been throughout the past year. Every responsible correspondent in Brussels has emphasised that the failure to reach agreement on Sunday morn- ing does not mean the collapse of the negotia- tions or make it any the less likely that Britain will enter the Common Market. There is just more hard work ahead.

But Sunday's failure does complicate the Government's timetable: the timetable which had been carefully arranged to secure, first, the approval of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers; secondly, the approval of Parliament; and, thirdly, the approval of the Conservative Party Conference. Armed with this support, the Government could then have set about selling the Common Market to the country—`with trumpets,' as Mr. Macleod likes to say—a task for which the Conservative Central Office estimates that it needs at least a year before going to the polls. The readjustment of this timetable must have been the primary concern of the Cabinet Committee on Common Market negotiations when it met in London on Monday.

The Commonwealth

Although there will now be no outline agree- ment to submit to the Commonwealth Prime Ministers, there will be much of substance to discuss and which could still form the basis of an agreed, and not entirely meaningless, com- muniqué. Moreover, Mr. Heath has proved that he and the Government are not prepared to enter the Common Market on any terms, however bad. He has given, in the most practical way, an earnest of the Government's determination in this matter. It would not be in the least surprising if the Commonwealth Prime Ministers were ready collectively—as some of them have done individually—to pay their tribute to Mr. Heath's skill in fighting for their interests.

After all, it is scarcely unimportant that, during the final session on Saturday night, the Six said they were ready to regard New Zealand as a special case, and willing to make arrange- ments because of its dependence on the British market. These arrangements may prove difficult to negotiate, but the Commonwealth Govern- ments are not likely to be unimpressed by the patience with which Mr. Heath has fought for concessions of this kind.

Moreover, it is essential to remove the impres- sion, encouraged especially by the propaganda of Lord Beaverbrook, that on the one side is Britain, careless of the Commonwealth's interests, and, on the other, the Commonwealth countries, rigidly opposed to Britain's entry into the Com- mon Market. During the last year, there has been a far more remarkable drawing together of their views and positions than one would imagine from the loose talk of the New Brunswick volunteers and mercenaries. It should not be past the statesmanship of Mr. Macmillan, Mr. Menzies and Mr. Nehru to find a way of making this clear during the Prime Ministers' talks.

In protracted negotiations of this nature, public positions are not always real ones, and it is worth recalling some of the more encouraging statements which have been made by responsible Ministers in the Commonwealth: I. Mr. Menzies, on June 25, 1962, said that it was 'fair comment' that he had overestimated the losses and underestimated the gains for Australia if Britain joined the Common Market. 'But that is perhaps because we have been primarily concerned to discuss the possible losses to avoid incurring them, while not being in too much of a hurry to say there might be gains.'

2. Mr. Marshall, the deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, said, on June 13, 1962, that he was very happy with the assurances on the Common Market that Britain had given to the Commonwealth. 'We have no worries about the British Government's attitude. . . . We trust them.'

3. Mr. R. W. Macaulay, Minister of Econo- mics and Development in the Ontario Govern- ment, told the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in London, on May 25, 1962, that if Canada was sitting on the fence on the subject of the Common Market. this was because she was negotiating with Britain on the terms which she thought most important, but Canadian attitudes were not fixed, either on the Common Market or Britain's application to join. 'The important thing is for Britain to remain strong, because without her the Commonwealth cannot survive. Whether .she will be stronger in or out of the Common Market is for her to decide.'

4. Mr. Morajii Desai, India's Minister of Finance, said, on July 4, 1962, that he felt that Britain was making 'an honest effort to strengthen the Commonwealth.' If Britain got stronger by joining the Common Market, this would certainly benefit the Commonwealth.

These are, of course, only one-sided extracts from a debate which has been swinging to and fro round the Commonwealth for a year. But they could be multiplied, and they will serve here to emphasise how false it is to see a rigid division, in either attitudes or interests, between Britain and the other Commonwealth countries. All of them know how to play their own game. As Mr. Macaulay added: 'Canada holds some cards in the negotiations, but that is why she urges Britain to negotiate from strength.' It is hardly likely that the Commonwealth Pfir11C Ministers will be ready to give away this position in September, but there is no reason why their communiqué should not assist the Government. The isolation of the opponents of the Common Market may well, as it turns out, begin then.

Parliament

It is a little pointless now to recall Parliament during the recess. Indeed, an announcement to this effect can probably be expected soon, if not before Mr. Redmayne, the Government Chief Whip, goes on holiday at the end of the week. In the long run, the postponement of the special debate may well prove an advantage for the Government. During the past month, it has given the impression—in the end, as it has proved, a false one—of being ready to conclude any agree- ment with the Six in order to push it through Parliament in one hectic three-day debate. In these conditions, it would almost certainlY have met a more suspicious House than other- wise. It has already been reported that many of the most European-minded of the Conservative MPs are grateful for the slackening of the Pace' and understandably so: they will now find it much easier to persuade the doubtful members of their party of the Government's sincerity of intention, at least. I have never been certain that a specially convened session of Parliament would have provided the right atmosphere in which to debate so momentous an issue. There would inevitably have been an artificial feeling of crisis, and Members, straight back from their holidays, would have had small opportunity to carry on that extraordinary process by which the collective opinion of a party is created. It would also have followed too quickly on the .meeting of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers. Too much attention would have been concentrated on the wording, inevitably subtlew, of the communiqué, and too little on the ne.n climate of opinion which had been created 1 the Commonwealth countries as the result of the new dispositions of their Governments. BY ancle large, I think the Government will come to sec, is a he upsetting in gofdisthgueiirse.timetable in this respe

The Party

It would certainly have been an advantage fc'r the Government to take a fait accompli to. tirt Conservative Party Conference, especially If had been acquiesced in by the Commonwealth 1:rone Ministers and approved by Parliament. As 1.t is, there will now have to be another debate to which little is changed since last year's which resulted in an overwhelming vote of confidence Itt. the Government's decision to begin negotia- tions with the Six. But, if the Government lacks the advantage of a fait accornpli, the opponents oo less lack the advantage of any document by Which they can prove that the Government has sold, or intends to sell, the Commonwealth or agriculture down the river. Moreover, there can be little doubt about the growth of Mr. Heath's reputation inside the Party since last year. He is now known; his public persona is liked; and he is trusted. With these advantages, with his unrivalled command of his subject, and with the attention which is naturally given to the platform speaker at a Conservative conference, I have no doubt that he will walk away with the day to thunderous applause, and that the political correspondents Will be writing that night that a new leader of the Conservative Party has been born. What is going to be far more interesting than the formal vote of support for the Government iS whether the Conservative Ministers take the oPeortunity to show how the decision to enter the Common Market can be presented to the Country: to show, in short, how it can be 'sold With trumpets.' This may not be the last Con- skervative conference before a general election, 'tit it will certainly be the last before the Con- servative campaign must begin in earnest, with the Common Market decision at the centre of its aPPeat. To this extent, the lack of a fa it tlecompl i i is a disadvantage; but, again, there s the compensation that the party will not feel that it has been stampeded.

The Country

When eventually the agreement with the *-omnion Market countries has been reached, its °I)Porients in this country will fall back on one "oat argument: that no decision should be taken 11. ntil the electors have been able to pronounce on It, either at a general election or at a referendum. It will be time to meet these specious arguments When they are put forward more seriously than they are at the moment. But, certainly, the tern- 0?rary slackening of pace, forced by Saturday litght's failure at Brussels, has already lessened their force. There is going to be a month or six rWeeks for drawing breath and for a considera- tion the point at which we have arrived. Like arhaolent and like the Conservative conference, he country will have less excuse to complain at it is being stampeded. in short, the timetable which the Government adopted earlier on in the year was a sensible one the time but the attempt to keep up with the contetable was creating a false atmosphere of brIsts and hurry. Nothing, it seems, has been lost reY Saturday's failure, primarily because so much Progress had already been made; but it is Possible that, adventitiously, a lot has been ilgsaffled. This is a matter in which the Government suLe°11rageo05ly giving leadership of genuine brListance" It is no bad thing for there to be a eireath -tog space for that leadership to have its te'ect: Accidents will happen in politics, and one els inclined this time to say, 'Thank goodness.'