Second Act

The hour was late in the conference room in Brussels where the Common Market foreign ministers were considering Britain's application to join Europe's Six. Stale cigar smoke hung in the air, and papers were scattered over the tables. Picking up one of the English-language documents, France's Maurice Couve de Murville took the floor to lambaste each argument it contained. Suddenly a hand tugged at Couve's sleeve and a voice whispered in his ear: the paper he was so ruthlessly demolishing was not from the British at all--but was an English translation of one of the Six's own position papers.

The story was probably apocryphal, but the speed with which it made the rounds of Whitehall last week revealed the deep British exasperation at France's blocking tactics in Brussels. Just back from the talks, Britain's chief Market negotiator, Lord Privy Seal Edward Heath, could scarcely conceal his irritation with France over the stalemate on terms of Britain's Common Market membership.

In a White Paper, Heath said that there was "a great deal of progress," which would serve as a basis for discussion when ministerial talks resume next October. But he argued that Britain's hopes for a tentative agreement this summer were snagged by France's last-minute, 3 a.m. insertion of an extraneous matter of agricultural prices in the closing Brussels session. Paris quickly contested the British version of the breakdown of the talks, said that discussions had actually foundered when Heath himself decided to "reserve his position" on the matter of further British concessions on safeguards for Commonwealth farm exports.

Despite the bickering between Paris and London, many top British officials, on second thought, viewed the impasse as a blessing in disguise. The delay, they reasoned, would stifle the criticism from British opponents of the Common Market on both the Left and the Right who have bitterly complained that the Macmillan government was rushing Britain into Europe with undue haste. Moreover, the deadlock could be interpreted by the Commonwealth Prime Ministers, who will confer in London next month, as heartening proof of Britain's intention to stand firm on behalf of Commonwealth interests and to hold out for the best possible terms.

Though the negotiations have temporarily lost their momentum, only Europe's darkest pessimists see the delays as anything more than temporary. Even France knows that if it keeps Britain out, it will be isolated from its partners in the Six--all of whom favor Britain's admission into the club. One top German official saw the stalemate as only a plot ploy in the Common Market melodrama. "The drama has started," he said. "I can see exits with doors slamming, tears, shouts of rage, devious subplots involving doublecrossing, and all the rest. But I am completely convinced that this is no tragedy. Late in the third act, everything is going to turn out all right, and the hero and heroine will go hand in hand into the sunset with smiles on their faces."

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