Word: heaths
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Pompidou needed considerable convincing. Like De Gaulle, he feared that Britain, once in the Market, would merely be a stalking horse for huge American corporations. After De Gaulle's funeral last November, Heath asked during a brief meeting with Pompidou: "Do you see a major difficulty to Britain's entry into the European Economic Community?" "I see only one," Pompidou replied. With that, he opened a copy of Le Figaro to a full-page ad for British Overseas Airways Corporation that proclaimed: L'AMÉRIQUE COMMENCE À LONDRES-America begins in London...
...That would be disastrous, he indicated, because English is not simply the language of Britain but "above all, the language of America." He added: "Europe will only be Europe if she distinguishes herself-I don't say cuts off, I say distinguishes herself-from America." In many ways, Heath agrees. Unlike many of his predecessors, he feels no particular bond with the U.S. "Heath is not anti-American, he's un-American," British Author Anthony Sampson (The New Europeans) said recently. "He has no pull toward America, either through family, the war or friendships. He feels no reciprocity...
...problems will be even more severe for Ted Heath, particularly if Tory M.P.s become convinced that their constituents are dead set against joining Europe. If the terms of Britain's EEC entry are set by the end of June, as now seems almost certain, Heath will face difficult options. He could try to railroad the EEC entry through Parliament before the summer recess, which normally comes in July. He could also wait until October, after the party conferences. But there are disadvantages in delay. By the fall, Labor may well have turned openly against entry, and opposition...
Anti-Market Tory M.P.s are already warning Heath that mishandling Market membership could have disastrous consequences for the Conservatives. In Commons last week, Tory M.P. John Jennings said that if Chief Negotiator Rippon did not win satisfactory entry terms from the Six, "he will split the Tory party from top to bottom and bring about the downfall of the Tory government." If Heath believes that he may be defeated, his ultimate escape hatch would be simply not to submit the membership issue to Commons, perhaps ducking behind the excuse that the EEC's terms were not generous enough...
...never mentioned another Churchill dictum, dated 1946: "We must build a kind of United States of Europe." Heath's task-and it is likely to be the most important of his career-is to persuade the British that their destiny lies not toward the open sea but across the Channel, the ditch that long rendered them impregnable to continental conquerors but also cut them off from a more active role in Europe...