"For Us, the Future"

A month ago, Harold Macmillan was in such political trouble that he seemed to have nowhere to go but up. Last week he was up--way up.

A sluggish economy, a series of by-election setbacks, and last summer's ministerial massacre had undermined public confidence in the government and caused Macmillan's popularity to plunge to new lows in the public-opinion polls. Committed though he was to British entry into the Common Market, his leadership seemed to be faltering. There were alarmed predictions that rising antiMarket sentiment would split the party. In this atmosphere of fretful uncertainty, the Tories met for their annual party conference in the Welsh resort of Llandudno --and ringingly endorsed both the Common Market and Harold Macmillan.

Cries of "Rubbish." In the week be fore the conference. 20 million copies of Macmillan's pamphlet, stating why Britain must join Europe, were circulated to every corner of the United Kingdom. At Llandudno young party workers distributed among the delegates hundreds of five-inch lapel badges that bore only one word: "Yes."' Belatedly. anti-Marketeers copied the ploy, but their "No" buttons were overwhelmingly outnumbered. To provide the facts and figures about the Market, Britain's chief negotiator, Lord Privy Seal Edward Heath, interrupted meetings with the Six in Brussels and flew to Wales. Exhibiting all the charm, patience and tenacity that made him a successful chief whip in Commons. Heath spent three hours briefing 350 party agents on how to answer specific questions from farmers, housewives and small businessmen in their constituencies. Bowled over by Heath's persuasiveness, the agents gave him a roaring ovation at the end of the closed session.

In public debate later, the antiMarket forces, led by two former Health Ministers. Robert Turton and Sir Derek Walker-Smith, forcefully invoked the catch phrase of "Queen, country and Commonwealth.'' But the old arguments failed to rouse a cold audience. When an anti-Marketeer said that Britain's young people were against going into the Market. cries of ''Rubbish'' and "Nonsense" filled the hall.

Plea for Wealth. Government big guns blasted the antiMarket forces. Said Heath in a solidly professional, fact-filled speech: "Europe is incomplete without Britain, and we in Britain are incomplete without Europe." Savagely, Deputy Prime Minister Rab Butler tore into the Labor Party's antiMarket position, called Hugh Gaitskell's antiMarket address at the recent Labor Party conference "a passionately backward-looking speech." The Socialists. Butler said, "have decided to look backward. For them, 1,000 years of history books; for us, the future." Foreign Secretary Lord Home eloquently tied economics to world politics: "With every restrictive practice that is abolished, with every order that is gained because prices are competitive, with every delivery date that is held, a British Foreign Secretary rejoices, because it has an instant effect on our ability to guide events. Once more I make a plea for wealth--which is one of the foundations of influence."

In the end, fewer than 40 hands out of 4.500 were raised against the government's pro-Market resolution. The stage was then set for Macmillan, and he received one of the greatest ovations of his 40-year political career. In a passionately felt speech, he declared that Britain must enter the Market or "forfeit the chance of influencing events. If we delay indefinitely, it will be too late. Now is the opportunity, and we must seize it. With the development of the European idea, there has come a resurgence and a new vigor in all aspects of European life. There is something here of the release of the spirit which lifted Europe out of the medieval twilight into the brilliance of the Renaissance and the modern world. Europe is once more on the move."

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