Abstract
‘What I chiefly fear…’ wrote Macmillan in April 1957 ‘is the Common Market coming into being and the Free Trade Area never following’.1 From the start the British attempt to create a Free Trade Area (FTA), via talks in the Organisation of European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), faced numerous difficulties. Once the Six had signed the Treaty of Rome they naturally wished to defend their hard-won creation, and they were already suspicious of Britain’s attempts to disrupt their cooperation. The British had no interest in political integration in Europe. Neither did the FTA offer the Six much in economic terms. Even Paul Gore-Booth, Deputy Under-Secretary at the FO, acknowledged in his memoirs that an FTA for industrial goods, combined with Commonwealth trade preferences, meant that ‘the Commonwealth could expose European goods coming into Britain to competition which British goods entering the Common Market would not suffer’. Thus, Britain would gain most. The government was also reluctant to make concessions on agricultural goods because of the strong anti-EEC views of the National Farmers Union, whose support was vital to many Conservative MPs.
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Notes
P. Gore-Booth, With Great Truth and Respect (1974), 247;
R. J. Lieber, British Politics and European Unity (1970), 52–4.
M. Camps, Britain and the European Community, 1955–63 (1964), is still the main work on this period.
Ibid. 509. G. Peden. ‘Economic aspects of British perceptions of power’, in E. di Nolfo, ed., Power in Europe? Vol. II, 1952–7 (1992), 139–59, quote from 158; Public Record Office (PRO), CAB. 134/153. Report on ‘Position of the UK in World Affairs’, July 1958.
Gladwyn Jebb, The Memoirs of Lord Gladwyn (1972), 292–9; Macmillan, Riding the Storm 435–6; PREM. 11/1844 (18 April and 3 June, 1957).
R. Maudling, Memoirs (1978), 67–72;
A. Home, Macmillan, Vol. II. 1957–86 (1990), 34–5; quote from Macmillan, ibid. 436–8. On the 2 May Cabinet: CAB. 128/31, C(57), 37th.
J. Chauvel, Commentaire: de Berne à Paris (1973), 275–8.
Quotes from: Gore-Booth, Great Truth 250–53; H. Macmillan, Pointing the Way, 1959–61 (1972), 49–50. On the breakdown see: CAB. 128/32, C(58), 86th (18 Dec.) and 88th (23 Dec.).
On the Moscow visit see Home, Macmillan 129–35. On Adenauer’s criticisms of Britain: R. H. Ferrell, ed., The Eisenhower Diaries (1981),363;
quote from T. Prittie, Konrad Adenauer (1971), 263–4;
P. H. Spaak, Continuing Battle (1971), 335–6.
CAB/134/1822; N. Beloff, The General Says No (1963), 84–90.
PREM. 11/2998 (15 Feb); K. Middlemas, Power, Competition and the State, Vol. II,1961–74 (1990), 33.
On the US see: G. Ball, The Discipline of Power (1968), 66–8 and 90–117;
H. Macmillan, At the End of the Day, 1961–3 (1973),111. On the Rambouillet talks: PREM. 11/3322 includes Macmillan’s plans for winning de Gaulle over.
Beloff, General Says No, 108–10; A. Howard, ‘Rab’: the Life of R. A. Butler (1987), 286–7, 295;
H. Evans, Downing Street Diary (1975),150–1, 165. On pressure groups see Lieber, British Politics 92–105, and 116–32.
A. Roth, Heath and the Heathmen (1972), 154–5, gives the details on Heath’s travels.
On his speech see: M. Couve de Murville, Une Politique d’Etrangère (Paris, 1971), 398–9;
P. H. Spaak; The Continuing Battle (1971), 474–5.
Roth, Heath 162; P. Dixon, Double Diploma (1968), 282–3; Macmillan, End of the Day 114–15, 118–19.
Macmillan, End of the Day 119–23; Home, Macmillan 326–30; Roth, Heath 162; Couve, Politique 403–4; H. Alphand, L’Etonnement d’Etre (1977),379–80.
On Gaitskell see especially: P. M. Williams, ed., The Diary of Hugh Gaitskell (1983) Chapter 25 and Appendix III, document 24;
L. J. Robins, The Reluctant Party: Labour and the EEC, 1961–75 (Ormskirk, 1979), 11–43, quote from 41; and Lieber, British Politics 166–85 (with 185–206 on the Conservative Party).
But see also: G. Catlin, For God’s Sake Go (1972), 413;
G. Brown, In My Way (1971), 218–19;
Macmillan, ibid. 363–8; Dixon, ibid. 302–4; Couve, Politique 408–14; Spaak, Continuing Battle 475–6; but the fullest account is Beloff, General Says No 11–17; 165–71. On de Gaulle’s reaction to Nassau, see also F. Catigliola, France and the United States (1992), 132–3.
K. Middlemas, Power, Competition and the State, Vol. II, 1961–74 (1990), 16, see also 8–9, 33–4; Beloff, General Says No 172–8.
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© 1993 John W. Young
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Young, J.W. (1993). Macmillan, the Free Trade Area and the First Application, 1957–63. In: Britain and European Unity, 1945–1992. British History in Perspective. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23152-2_3
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