Word: macmillan
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...more surprising, therefore, was the first reaction to Chancellor Macmillan's announcement last week. Enthusiasm for the idea cut across class and party lines. Fifty leading bankers, industrialists, economists and union leaders promptly joined in publishing a statement which declared that "the European common market could enable Europe to establish healthy economic relations with the rest of the world. If we neglect to minister to its birth, it may outgrow us and have little need of Britain." A group of 82 Labor M.P.s and another of 89 Tories, more than 25% of the House of Commons, got behind similar...
...intolerable a choice, Macmillan decided, would be what he called a "partial free-trade area." Unlike a full-fledged customs union, the partial free-trade area would have no common tariff against outside nations, and even between member nations certain goods would still be subject to tariff. Under such an arrangement the British could exchange manufactured goods tariff-free with the rest of Europe, but would still be able to maintain imperial preference on food, fodder, drink and tobacco-goods which make up a substantial chunk of Commonwealth exports to Britain...
Chills & Fervor. Before broaching his scheme to the British public last week, Macmillan was careful to talk it over with the Commonwealth Finance'Ministers. The reception he got was, he said, "sympathetic, friendly and amicable...
...outlined last week, the British plan was still mostly yeast in the vat of the future. The Cabinet, Macmillan emphasized, "has not yet arrived at a conclusion on this vital matter." There were strong reasons for the government's hesitation. British entry into a European free-trade area would involve painful adjustments. While some factories would prosper and expand, others would go out of business-a prospect to send cold chills down the spine of many a British industrialist. Some labor leaders were sure to make a fist at the very suggestion of even temporary disruptions of employment...
...first fervent breath of approval. And time would indeed be required, at least ten years, perhaps 15, to convert the economic-union dream into working reality. A few weeks ago few would have predicted that the dream was feasible at all. After last week's discussion, however, Harold Macmillan's vision could be rated a distinct possibility...