To the Aid of the Party No one who has
met Signor La-, Malfa, the dynamic Italian Minister for the Budget, will be surprised to hear that he is taking the lead in pressing for Italian policy to exert its maximum influence in favour of Britain's entry into the Common Market. When I met him last autumn in Rome he made it quite clear that he regarded the consequences of failure in Brussels with
alarm, feeling—what is widely felt in Italy—that the legacy of distrust among the Six which would follow such failure might abort the further development of the Community. In this Signor La Malfa is representative of the European non- Communist Left which sees no obstacle to plan- ning in the institutions of the Common Market— rather the contrary—and is afraid of participation in a Europe permanently dominated by Adenauer and de Gaulle. It is a pity that the Labour Party does not pay more heed to their opinion, and paradoxical that in these quarters the presence in Europe of a British Conservative Government should represent an apertura a sinistra. However, t feel certain that the efforts of the Italian Government will not be lost on opinion here, but will do something to confirm a relationship between our two countries which was hardly interrupted by Mussolini. As for Europe, there can be no doubt that the example of the Fanfani Government will prove fruitful— no one acquainted with French or German politics can fail to perceive the need of a European 'opening to the left.' If this comes about, it will be men like Signor La Malfa who will have shown the way.
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