Testing the Market

It was 45 months, two governments and three Prime Ministers ago that Britain's application for membership in the six-nation Common Market was brusquely vetoed by Charles de Gaulle. Though the guillotine was dropped by the general, the Tories, then in power, undoubtedly helped crank it up into lethal position by their haggling over petty details. Moreover, the Labor Party opposed entry all along and, for that matter, many British businessmen breathed a sigh of relief at having escaped the threat of immediate Continental competition.

But a lot has changed in Britain since then. Successive sterling crises have demonstrated to all but the most insular Britons that Little Englandism will not work in the modern industrial world. Britain's once-binding ties of trade with the Commonwealth have continued to loosen, dropping in 1956 from 40% of all British trade to a mere 28% last year. British public opinion--including an estimated 90% of businessmen--has clearly swung round in favor of joining Europe.

To test the mood on the other side of the Channel, Prime Minister Wilson sent Minister of State for Foreign Affairs George Thomson out on the European circuit to take soundings. The reports were encouraging. Last month Wilson summoned his Cabinet to a weekend re treat at Chequers, where the Common Market was the prime item on the agenda; the ministries in Whitehall have been busily grinding out European position papers ever since.

Last week in the House of Commons, Wilson revealed the cautious conclusion: a decision for "a new high-level approach" to the Common Market "to see whether the conditions exist--or do not exist--for fruitful negotiations." His first move, he said, would be to call a meeting of the leaders of the seven European Free Trade Association nations, some of which, like Denmark and Austria, are if anything more anxious than Britain to link up with the Six. After that, Wilson plans to pay personal visits to all of the capitals of the Six to press Britain's case. He did not add, because he did not need to, that it is only the visit to Paris that really matters. For all the other changes in the past four years, De Gaulle still sits in the Elysee and may, or may not, have changed his own mind about Britain in Europe.

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