Leakage
TliE publication of the full text of Mr. Heath's Paris speech to the Six makes it clear that last week's fuss was unjustified. So far from taking advantage of the darkness of the conference room to sell the Commonwealth down the river, the British Government appears to have stuck up for their interests (and for those of the Irish Republic) to an extent that should impress even the Canadian Minister of Finance. Of course, the indications of British policy contained in the speech represent maximum objectives. The Six will almost certainly not consent to the associa- tion of countries such as Australia, New Zealand and India with the Common Market. Such an association would, indeed, make nonsense of the Community's function as a regional grouping intended to lead to greater political, as well as economic, integration. But Commonwealth and EFTA countries should now feel some assurance —and it seems likely that some of them were anyhow less worried about the Common Market negotiation than they would care to have known publicly—that Britain will do. its utmost to pro- tect their trading .position during the long nego- tiations that will now follow.
Apart from this Mr. Heath's speech contained few surprises. The agricultural problem will, no doubt, be made easier by the fact that the Six themselves have not yet decided on the exact form which the Common Market in farm pro- ducts is to take. This will be a complex technical question dominated by France's need to dispose of its farm surplus. The delicate matter of UK food prices should be taken care of by the long transition period which the Lord Privy Seal sug- gested. As to the 20 per cent. cut in the EEC common external tariff, which he put forward as a method of making the enlarged Community acceptable to GATT and to third countries, this might raise some difficulties, bUt'the problem Of agreement with third countries is, of course, one that will have to be faced by the Six as well as by Britain. and in the interest of harmony it -
Would be better were the Community to regard Itself as a low-tariff rather than a high-tariff area.
What is important now is that the negotiations should proceed undisturbed by shrieks of rage from the audience. The leaking"of the Heath Speech would do real harm were it to mean that delegates in Brussels must keep one eye cocked over their shoulder for reactions elsewhere. The discussions on Britain's entiy into the Common Market will be difficult enough without being exposed to a glare of publicity. The govern- ments concerned must resist the temptation to score off each other by feeding news to the press, Or by adopting delaying tactics. This was pre- sumably one of the points which the Prime Minister made to President de Gaulle. He might have added that, were the Brussels talks to break down. Britain would not be the only one to suffer.
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