Australia, Britain, and Alternatives to European Integration, 1960–73

Abstract

From 1960 to 1973, opponents of Britain joining the European Economic Community (EEC) made an unsuccessful case for the “Commonwealth alternative” — a renewed program of economic, strategic, and political cooperation that would allow Britain to remain outside the Common Market. This article examines two of the leading proponents of this idea in Australian politics — the Liberal MP James Killen and Australia's High Commissioner in London from 1963 to 1972, Sir Alexander Downer — and examines how their arguments for cooperation among Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom relate to the historical and contemporary opposition to European integration in Britain. It further considers how the idea of a Commonwealth alternative to the EEC conflicted with the changes to immigration policy that took place in Australia and the United Kingdom during the 1960s and early 1970s.