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Our Man in Paris 51
The probe: January – April 1967
Nonetheless, Wilson and Brown’s visits to the EEC member states seemed to get off
to a good start. The first visit to Rome on 15 and 16 January 1967 was deemed a
success. Wilson and Brown returned to London convinced that Italy would back a
British application. 37 Paris, however, was to show them the obstacles on the way to a
successful application. Meeting the French president on the morning of 24 January,
Wilson affirmed that his government was serious about EEC entry and „meant
business”. 38 But the prime minister and his Foreign secretary were left unclear about
de Gaulle’s intentions. The general refused to comment whether or not he would veto
a British application. Instead he mentioned an „alternative to membership”. This, he
told his visitors, could take the form of an „agreement for association between Britain
and the Community” or even „something entirely new”. In a remark which
particularly confused Wilson and Brown, de Gaulle stated that
“he had the impression of an England which now really wished to moor herself
alongside the continent and was prepared in principle to pledge itself to rules in the
formulation of which it had had no part, and which would involve it in definite links
with the system which had grown up on the Continent”. 39
Even though de Gaulle refused to disclose his intentions, Wilson and Brown
believed they had made an important step towards a successful application.
Minister of Transport Barbara Castle noted in her diary: „They were convinced that
they had made a considerable impression on de Gaulle”. 40 Brown in particular
believed that the visit to Paris had further diminished the possibility of a French
veto. On 26 January he dispatched a telegram to the British ambassador in Bonn.
He could barely conceal his excitement:
“The General has at last accepted that our attitude has changed, that we mean
business, and that we are now just as ‘European’ as anyone else …”. 41
Foreign Office officials appeared to agree. The Paris talks, the European
Economic Organisation Department concluded, were encouraging:
”We believe that the French Government cannot but have been convinced of our sincerity
and determination in seeking British entry to the Community, provided the difficulties
we saw could be overcome: and we made clear at all stages that, in our view, the
problems discussed need represent no obstacle to our joining the Community”. 42
Con O’Neill went even further. In a letter to the British ambassador in Vienna
on 3 February 1967 he wrote of having been „elated” to hear general de Gaulle
speak of a Britain wishing to „moor itself alongside the continent”:
37. UKNA: PREM13/1475, Brown to Bonn, 17 January 1967.
38. UKNA: FO800/982, Record of a meeting between the Prime minister and the Foreign Secretary
and the president of France and the French Foreign minister, 24 January 1967, 10 a.m.
39. UKNA: FO800/982, Record of a meeting held at the Elysée Palace, 25 January 1967, 4.15 p.m.
40. B. CASTLE, The Castle Diaries 1964-70, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London, 1984, p.213.
41. UKNA: PREM13/1476, Brown to Bonn, 26 January 1967.
42. UKNA: PREM13/1476, FO (EEOD) to Bonn, 26 January 1967.