London, 10 June 1971
11013. Personal And Secret
Britain and the EEC
Last night at the Foreign Secretary’s annual Diplomatic Banquet amidst the splendours of Hampton Court I had a revealing, and highly spirited, discussion with Rippon, and a much friendlier one beforehand with Ted Heath.
Rippon is angered by Anthony’s recent public statement that Britain has let Australia down in the negotiations.1 He was also highly critical of Bjelke-Petersen’s2 statement last week as it appeared in the Press here.
He was not complaining about the Australian Cabinet as such; their attitude had been reasonably understanding; it was Anthony and, he supposed, the views of the Country Party, to which he objected.
I know Rippon somewhat. He is a fellow Brasenose man, and so we can always talk on that sort of basis. I began by saying that he was looking like the cat who had swallowed the canary. Smilingly, he replied that he had acted with consideration for Australia in the negotiations, referring particularly to alumina. I replied that our general feeling was that our overall interests were being disregarded, at which he started his trenchant attack on Anthony and the Queensland Premier.
Australians, he said, were noted for their plain speaking, and he was going to speak plainly in return.
He then proceeded to make a bitter attack on Australia. We were, he said, a selfish country. We contributed little to international aid. We cared nothing for Britain. ‘It would matter nothing to you if this country sank under the North Sea’. We thought of our own interests, and nothing else. Australia was a rich country—richer than Britain. He mentioned his own investments in Australian mining companies.
‘You cannot’, he proceeded, ‘continue to live on England’s back’. I replied that we had no such intention, we were a people of sturdy independence, but it was false to claim we were richer than Britain. One day we would be, but not now. I then told him that if he cared to make the charges in public what he had just been saying to me about Australia I would immediately issue a public statement in reply.
He said that the Government were trying to help us as best they could in Defence matters East of Suez. If a major crisis arose they would, of course, fly troops over to our part of the world to help us. But we had to realise that Britain no longer had either the power or the affluence she formerly possessed, and there was a limit in all these things to what she could do.
The amount of our export trade with Britain, he believed, was 12%, and although only 3% of our exports here would be damaged he admitted there was a regional problem in Australia—but he rather dismissed this as something not very important. I reminded him sharply that the areas in question were large ones and that I had an intimate personal acquaintance with them having represented them for long years in the Australian Parliament. I invited him to come to my former constituency and repeat the things he had been saying to me, and see the sort of rough reception he would get.
In a more subdued mood, Rippon declared that it was absolutely necessary for Britain’s progress that she join the EEC. He spoke with a vehemence as if it were a matter of life and death for Britain’s future survival as a strong Power. Several times he said that once Britain was in the EEC they would be able to make their partners more outward-looking, obtain more consideration for Australia’s interests, negotiate a better agreement for sugar. Indeed, with Britain in the Market, he believed the Commonwealth in 10 years’ time would be stronger than today.
I observed that what worried me, and many of my countrymen, was the long term effect the consequences of Britain joining the Market could have on Anglo-Australian relations. Profounder issues were involved than merely economic ones. To this Rippon replied that whatever happened our two countries would always be close together. There were no countries with firmer bonds than ours. Otherwise he would not have talked to me in this way. ‘If you had been a foreign Ambassador, then you would have every justification in walking away from me, and elevating this into a major diplomatic incident. But because you are an Australian I can talk to you thus.’
We concluded by a discussion on Anthony. I told Rippon Anthony was absolutely genuine, a man of high quality, no mere politician, who sincerely believed in the views he publicly expressed. Rippon asked me not to repeat this conversation to Anthony, but I will give him an outline when he arrives next week. In view of the foregoing, will you please protect all this.
2. Later in the evening, I encountered Fred Peart, who you will remember as a senior Minister in Wilson’s Government.3 Peart is an anti-Marketeer. He said that Rippon had had a rough time in the House during the afternoon from both sides. He added that at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party that day it was clear that the Party was moving rapidly towards opposition to the terms as negotiated by Heath and Rippon. I asked him how he could reconcile this with the Roy Jenkins group,4 and the 100 Labour members who supported him. Peart replied that they were drifting away from their earlier position, and he believed that when the time came for the critical vote the Marketeers in the Labour Party would be reduced to 20.
Peart has never been in favour of the EEC ‘You know where I stand’, he said. But there may well be a good deal of wishful thinking in these views.
3. At the beginning of the evening, I thought that Heath looked like a man on the crest of the wave. He showed every visible sign of one who had achieved a great triumph. He gave me the feeling of having attained his long-held, historic ambition of taking Britain into Europe. Laughingly, he said Australia was such a rich country, one of the richest countries per capita in the world. We would have no trouble in adjusting ourselves. But he referred with some irritation to Anthony’s reported utterances, denying the charges. I walked into dinner with him abjuring him not to turn away from his Australian mates.
1 Document 279.
2 Joh Bjelke Petersen, Premier of Queensland, 1968–87.
3 Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, 1964–68.
4 Of pro-marketeers.
[NAA: M1003]