A Matter of Form
Tag Prime Minister's talks with Mr. Diefen- baker are now concluded, and the inevitable pledge abounding in ambiguity has been given concerning Britain's care for Commonwealth in- terests during the Brussels talks. All this is some- thing of a shadow-boxing contest. Of all the Commonwealth countries, Canada is that which has the least right to demand that Britain should give priority to its interests. Canada has per- sistently turned down schemes for imperial economic integration in the past and would no doubt do so again were one to be proposed. In fact, however, it is rather too late for talk of this kind. The British Government will probably have to swallow what is set before it at Brussels, and its care for the interests of the Common- wealth could be defined as a lively sense of political reactions at Westminster. However, opponents of going into Europe—or, as they put it, of 'abandoning the Commonwealth'—are likely to find their influence weakened within the Conservative Party by the events of the last few weeks. From the moment that the Common Market appears likely to be the best Tory electoral asset some MPs will come to view it in a different and a rosier light.
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