The Hard Decision

To join the Common Market or not? The agonizing question followed Prime Minister Harold Macmillan everywhere, even up to Cambridge, where at his side to receive an honorary degree was the original Mr. Europe himself, Jean Monnet (see cut), first head of Europe's Coal and Steel Community, forerunner of the Common Market.

As if dancing a stately minuet, Macmillan seemed to advance toward Europe one minute, then twirl and step backward the next. Was he being too cautious? "Forever Amber," sniffed the Liberal Party's peppery Lady Violet Bonham Carter, echoing the growing criticism of Mac's leadership in general. The British public now seemed squarely in favor of making common cause with the Europeans, was beginning to grumble as the government held back. Even the usually loyal London Times had stern words for the P.M.: "The government must set the pace . . . it must cease to shilly-shally . . . The pound is weak; no one is quite sure whether an economic crisis is around the corner or not; Britain appears almost as a frightened suitor at the feet of the Common Market."

Fact was, it had become almost certain that Britain would join the Common Market some day, somehow, and this clear probability was chopping away the foundations from under Britain's own competing economic club, the Outer Seven free-trade area; already the Danes and Norwegians of the Outer Seven were eying the Common Market with envy, and the Swedes were readying a deal with Europe's Six for the day when Macmillan finally decides to jump. And there was still the problem of how to open Britain's markets to Europe without destroying the vast empire preference system that is Britain's main link with the Common wealth.

Macmillan's task was made no easier by the way things were going on the Continent last week. France, anxious to find markets for its burgeoning farm surpluses, abruptly demanded a common agricultural price and marketing system that would rule throughout the Common Market. To back their demand, the French threatened to veto any further industrial tariff reduction in the Common Market unless an agricultural agreement was reached.

Inclusion of farm goods was a basic provision of the original Rome treaty, but the West Germans, whose farmers are heavily protected by price subsidies and steep tariffs, have managed to stall year after year. As for Britain, it has always insisted it could join the Common Market Six only if its own farm prices were left unaffected. But the message from France was clear: the longer Britain waited, the higher the price would be.

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