The Balky Partners

Sidling toward entry into Europe's flourishing six-nation Common Market, Britain had recognized that the Commonwealth countries might object. But nobody had anticipated the violence of the reaction.

Three weeks ago, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dispatched a trio of ministers to the far corners of the Common wealth. Their mission was to argue that what is good for Britain is good for the Commonwealth. Last week the three headed home in a minor state of shock.

They had found the Commonwealth hostile, and even bitter.

Fearful of the loss of their trading privileges with a Britain economically wedded to the Six (France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands), the Commonwealth countries wanted no part of the Common Market. "Old friendships fade," observed the Australian correspondent of the London Economist acidly. "The club is not what it was. The far-flung Empire became the glorious Commonwealth; and then suddenly it seemed nothing but a millstone round Britain's neck as Britain tried to get into the swim of the Six.''

The traveling salesman with the roughest route was Britain's tough, shrewd Duncan Sandys, Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations.

Sandys' first stop was New Zealand, which, surprisingly, made the least fuss despite the fact that it stands to lose the most should Britain cuts its Common wealth trade ties. Last year New Zealand shipped 89% of its butter, 94% of its cheese, 94% of its lamb and mutton to Britain--all told, half of its total exports. "The British government provides our very livelihood," pleaded Prime Minister Keith Holyoake, then agreed to a Sandys communique approving Britain's opening negotiations with the Six, provided that New Zealand's interests were safe guarded.

Flabbergasted. Sandys' honeymoon was short-lived. Considered the toughest man in the Commons, Sandys met his match in Australia's determined Prime Minister Menzies. Though only 25% of Australia's exports go to Britain, and the nation's economy is far more balanced than agricultural New Zealand's, Menzies was ada mant against Britain's entry into the Market. In four days of tough bargaining, Sandys failed even to win approval for Britain to open negotiations. According to an aide, Sandys was "shocked and flabbergasted." It took nine hours to draft the final brief communique. Virtually dictated by Menzies. it stipulated that if Britain did begin talks with the Six. Australia would be forced to "negotiate direct on Australia's behalf when details and arrangements affecting items of Australian trade were being discussed."

Flying on to Canada, the weary Sandys got a brusque reception. He was flown from Montreal to Ottawa in a creaking old DC-3, while a Nigerian trade mission arriving the same day was assigned a plush government Viscount. At the bargaining table, the Canadians demanded not only assurances of protection for their exports to Britain ( which constitute only 20% of their sales abroad), but also that Britain would call a Commonwealth Prime Ministers' meeting before opening talks with the Six. Sandys had no authority to agree to either (and Macmillan, who will not even let the Commons debate the Common Market issue, has no intention of assembling the whole Commonwealth to clamor against him). Though the schedule called for five days of talks, the angry Canadians stalked out on the second day and issued a terse communique: "The Canadian ministers indicated that their government's assessment of the situation was different from that put forward by Mr. Sandys." A frustrated Sandys returned to his Ottawa hotel, announced that he would sit tight until his prescheduled departure day, in the hope that the Canadians would reopen the talks. At week's end, weary of waiting, Sandys flew off to Quebec to go fishing.

Raw Provider. Macmillan's other emissaries fared little better. Labor Minister John Hare, sent to Africa, was told by Nigeria's Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa that Nigeria was not interested on any terms. Even if Britain took the Common wealth countries into the Six as full trading partners, Balewa said flatly, "there is no question of Nigeria joining. We want to protect our industries, and if we join the Market, we shall find it difficult to do so." Balewa's explanation: he feared the Common Market's ultimate goal of political federation might result in an industrial United States of Europe that would try to keep Africa a perpetual producer of raw materials to feed its factories.

In Ghana, Nkrumah was privately cordial to Hare's overtures, but as soon as Hare left, Nkrumah took the platform to declare that Ghana "would almost certainly be forced to leave the sterling area to safeguard our trading position" if Britain joined the Six.

Swinging through Asia was Minister of Aviation Peter Thorneycroft. India sends one-third of its exports to Britain, Pakistan one-fifth. Ceylon's tea enters Britain duty-free, but faces a 35% tariff entering the Common Market. Thorneycroft talked for an hour with Nehru, who emerged to note sourly that Britain's entry into the Market "would certainly weaken the Commonwealth." Most Indian businessmen take a more hardheaded view. As India's Economic Times observed: "If the Commonwealth trade preferences which formed the real and tangible advantages of Commonwealth membership did not exist, the Commonwealth itself might fall apart." Ceylon asked for special guarantees for its vital tea trade, which makes up 60% of its exports. The cheeriest support Britain got anywhere in the Commonwealth came from Pakistan's President Ayub Khan, who forthrightly said, "I think it would be a good thing if Britain joined the Common Market.'' His reason: it would strengthen Europe and the West against Communism.

Like Poland? The unexpected violence of the Commonwealth's reaction posed a sharp dilemma for Britain: whether to risk splitting the Commonwealth, with all its historic ties, or to risk missing the Common Market boat. To many Englishmen, the dissolution of the Commonwealth is unthinkable. But one distinguished British statesman argues privately that "the United Kingdom will have a foreign policy like Poland's within four or five years if she does not join the Common Market. Failure to join the Market would cause depression and unemployment in the U.K., with a Labor victory as a result. The Labor government would not be a Gaitskell government, but would consist of men who would be neutralists, who would make a deal with the Soviet Union and take the U.K. out of NATO."

Though few Britons accept this gloomy analysis (for instance, Gaitskell's neutralist opponents have lost ground recently), there is no doubt that most Britons would like to get into the Common Market: a recent Gallup poll showed 78% of the British public in favor of joining.

Despite the Commonwealth, Macmillan's government continued to move slowly toward the Six. Mused Macmillan, contemplating the complexities of perhaps the greatest issue to face Britain in modern times: "For all we know, it might not be possible to get in."

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