Australian High Commission, London, 22 December 1966
Confidential
Britain and the European Common Market
Yesterday (December 21st) Britain made the most positive statement it has yet made on joining the Common Market. Mr Thompson, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, representing the British Government at the Ministerial Council of the Western European Union, told the six countries of the EEC that Britain fully accepted the Treaty of Rome with only the minor adjustments accorded to all new members and that British commitments to the basic rules of the Community would be no different from the commitments of the six members themselves. He went on to say that Britain should be second to none in readiness to shape ‘the future policies of the Community and the destinies of our continent’.
2. Mr Thompson’s statement tends to confirm earlier evidence that the British Government is committed to entering the EEC if at all possible and that it has made up its mind to try every possible approach.
3. That Britain would make such a determined effort became clearer when Mr Wilson, who is the key figure in British policy decisions, revealed his attitude towards joining the EEC in Parliament last month. 1 In the November Parliamentary Debate on Europe, he admitted that he was not impressed by the argument for entry based on the so-called ‘cold wind of competition’, but much more impressed by the ‘exciting concept of a market large enough for our great technological industries to be able to expand and develop’. Perhaps more to the point, it can be assumed that as a shrewd politician he was also well aware of the prevailing mood in Britain.
4. From the speeches in November there is evidence that the Government, as well as the Opposition, had already realised that terms for a British entry would have to include their acceptance of the Treaty of Rome and the Common Agricultural Policy and that there was no possibility of a more favourable alternative.
5. Commonwealth interests and more specifically Australian interests are therefore unlikely to be allowed to stand in the way of British entry. Australia can expect sympathetic consideration, but no more.
[ matter omitted ]
1 Document 220.
[NAA: A 1838, 727/4/2 PART 6]