Next summer in Ottawa
Something of an end-of-term feeling pre- vailed on Friday as delegations began to leave and the conference rushed through its last items. The Zambian declaration, defused by Mr Trudeau's four little words, was hastily agreed and followed at once by the question of Britain's entry into the Common Market. Surprisingly, Commonwealth economic and technical links appeared to be on the upgrade. Needs were aired and British commitments cleared. Mr Heath pledged continued pres- sure for Commonwealith interests and gave figures to prove the advantages of associate status, whether on the Yaunde or the Arusha model; bilateral arrangements, according to British officials, were also going well. Iron- ically, as Mr Heath could not forbear to mention, after all the polemics several fears were expressed that Europe would not be so generous as Britain in the way of non- reciprocal preferences, and in care for less developed countries' need for industrialis- ation, against their own exports. If Mr Heath is less than sentimental over Commonwealth aid and trade, he possibly remembers the success of de Gaulle in French Africa (and the new French 1.77 million arms deal with South Africa which drew not a squeak from French or Anglophone Africa). Moreover, the example of Singapore, a cake of mud with no assets but her people and the confidence of private investment, was always visible, and she already exports twice as much to the EEC as she does to Britain. Significantly, Mr Heath had some extremely satisfactory meet- ings with British businessmen during the conference. The chairman of the Inter- national Chamber of Commerce told me of the optimism now felt in Singapore about the future of British trade. Certainly, whether in or out of Commonwealth context, the importance of South-East Asia as a trading partner is as dear to Mr Heath and Mr Barber as it is to Mr Lee, who sees Britain as a valuable counter to Japan, busily winning in peace more than she lost through war.
The Conference communiqué issued hast- ily on Friday evening was a model of com- pressed precision compared with wordier predecessors. Perhaps the most important item was Mr Trudeau's 'comparative govern- ment techniques', which, it was agreed, should be studied at the next heads of government meeting (and Mr Trudeau offered Ottawa in the summertime). For this showed concrete assumption of Common- wealth survival into the 'seventies.
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