Getting the Message

By Our Common Market Correspondent

TIILRE will be time when the tumult and shouting of the Premiers' Conference have

died away to see just how much the Government proposes to be deflected by it. At the time of writing, the torrent of doubts and fears do not appear to be having much effect on Ministerial resolution.

British officials, when asked to comment on the 'events of the last few days, take the soothing line that this kind of outburst was only to be expected—in fact, it was inevitable that at the beginning of the meeting the Premiers would pitch' it pretty strong. When, says the authentic voice of Whitehall, they have blown off steam and get down to hard work in technical groups things may appear in a different light. One wonders.

British tactics at this meeting have been based on the assumption that if it was made clear to the Prime Ministers severally that British entry to Europe is regarded by the British Government as inevitable they would make the best of it.

During the preliminary confrontations last week no attempt was made to conceal this. Mr. Sandys went so far as to remark to one Minister: 'We shall go into Europe, even if we lose the election afterwards.' Mr. Macmillan's opening speech to the conference made the same point in rather more diplomatic language.

The Commonwealth has certainly got the message by this time. The Prime Ministers are convinced, in Sir Alexander Bustamente's im- mortal phrases, that 'There is no need for a multiplicity of words. Britain is hell-bound to join Europe.'

The drawback of the 13; itish tactics is already being seen. It is that the Prime Ministers will feel that if the die is cast there is no need for them to be too diplomatic about things. It is significant that those Dominions whose fate in the negotiations most hangs in the balance, viz Australia and New Zealand, have been the most circumspect. In particular, Mr. Holyoake, who as convinced as the next man that Britain will join, has been mildness itself. He cannot afford to antagonise the people who are going to negotiate a 'special position' for him. Mr. Nehru or Mr. Diefenbaker, by contrast, probably does not believe there is any chance of reopening the 'settled' portions of the Brussels negotiations, but they have little to lose by maintaining that this is not only essential but possible. The trouble with allowing this to happen in just this way is the effect on public opinion of

the dramatic onslaughts. No doubt the public

will realise in time that the British Government won a considerable victory in the universal admission by the Premiers that it was the terms rather than the principe of Britain's entry which troubled them; that nearly every Prime Minister failed to answer Mr. Macmillart's argu- ments about the political dangers of staying out of. Europe; and that Mr. Diefenbaker's famous 'alternative plan' was a phoney (none of his officials, either in London or, as far as one can gather, in Ottawa, had the faintest idea what he was talking about when he launched this idea. Unless, as seems highly unlikely, he is going

back to the rejected notion of some .kind of Commonwealth free trade area, it is beyond the imagination of anyone connected with the con- ference to divine what he was talking about).

But meantime some damage may have been done. Tory back-benchers who have already been reading the opinion polls with alarm and noting that the constant drip of Beaverbrook propaganda has had some effect in their con- stituencies, require rather more ginger than has yet been forthcoming from the Government to answer the Commonwealth case. There seems to be growing pressure for the powerful wheels of the Government's Common Market campaign to be put in motion as soon as possible.

The situation has been further complicated by the Labour Party's gyrations. Mr. Gaitskell appears to have been thoroughly outmanceuvred by his more extreme colleagues here. The meeting of the Commonwealth Labour Parties was in- tended to be a completely informal affair, and Mr. Gaitskell had no original intention of issuing a communiqué. It was only towards the end that Mr. James Callaghan, who has become quite recently a convinced anti-Market man, proposed issuing a statement since everyone `appeared to

in general agreement.' This statement has a number of strange things about it, not least the signature of Mr. Yew of Singapore, who, on arrival at London Airport not long before, had said he was not particularly worried about the Common Market either way. Still more signifi- cant is the accusation that the terms so far agreed are too vague or too damaging. This last phrase is of great importance, for it implies that if the Labour Party is to give its blessing to Britain's entry to the EEC. some of the terms already agreed in Brussels must be re-negotiated. Mr. Gaitskell was evidently convinced that a re- negotiation was possible by the powerful speech made by Mr. K. B. Lall, the Indian Ambassador in Brussels, who, out of his experience, assured the meeting that better terms could be secured it only Britain would go back to ask for them.

This is in fact a totally unrealistic point of view. There is not the slightest chance of Britain's getting better terms on, say, Indian textiles, or Canadian manufactures or the Farm- ing Price Review or, in short, almost any of the details provisionally settled. The demand that the British negotiators do the impossible will now, therefore, land the Labour Party into oppo- sition almost for certain.

Mr. Gaitskell may not have realised this, to judge from his hurried statements to the news- papers that the Labour line has not changed and that it is untrue to say that Labour has come off the fence. But it is certainly realised by many members of the Party, and by the public at large. Things may also have been interpreted in this sense by the Commonwealth Prime Ministers. Mr. Dicfenbaker, at any rate, is reported to have informed Mr. Macmillan on Sunday that he would be forced to take the new Labour position into account —a remark from one Conservative Prime Minister to another which must have scared deep.

At any rate. what now seems clear is that the Government's hopes are now slender of getting a blessing from the Prime Ministers that Britain . can go into Europe on the lines which are at present emerging in Brussels. Mr. Macmillan can probably escape without having to face the prospect of another Prime Ministers' meeting largely because no one wants to trail over to London again to hear the same old arguments. But he can hardly avoid making some kind of declaration of intention about the future course of the negotiations. And it will require all his • skill at phrase-making as well as all his nerve to avoid being tied down to difficult, if not impos- sible. promises.