Philosophies Apart, June–October 1957

Abstract

On 12 June 1957, Harold Macmillan affirmed Britain’s support for the Six’s progress in a letter to President Eisenhower: ‘We have thought it wise not to press the negotiations for the European Free Trade Area too hard until the Rome agreements have been ratified. I do not want to see a repetition of what happened over [the] E.D.C.’.1 In private, however, the fall of the Mollet government on 21 May had raised just this possibility in Macmillan’s mind.2 In a minute to Selwyn Lloyd in early June, the prime minister questioned the strategy of waiting for the Rome Treaties’ ratification: The dangers of this plan are (a) that the French may not ratify; (b) that when the Six have ratified they may snap their fingers at the Free Trade Area and leave us in the lurch. In some ways I should be less worried about (a) because then we might be able to do an exercise as we did after [the] E.D.C… . to pick up the pieces’.3 Macmillan’s doubts about French ratification were soon to be proven groundless. The new government led by Maurice Bourges-Maunoury from 12 June was as committed to the Treaties of Rome as its predecessor. Consequently, the Macmillan government had to keep its part of the May agreements and await ratification of the Rome Treaties before proceeding with the FTA negotiations.