§ Q4. Sir D. Walker-Smithasked the Prime Minister what changes in the arrangements for Ministerial supervision of the conduct of the Common Market negotiations will result from the new duties of the Secretary of State for the Home Department in respect of Central Africa.
§ The Prime MinisterNone, Sir.
§ Sir D. Walker-SmithDo not the continued duties of my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary in this field include co-ordinating an alternative Commonwealth plan so that we shall be better equipped for these negotiations and better placed in the event of their ultimate failure?
§ The Prime MinisterOf course, we have to consider, and we are all the time considering, what our policy should be should we not be able to conclude a successful negotiation. As regards the actual machinery of negotiation, perhaps I may remind my right hon. and learned Friend that the Lord Privy Seal is the Minister in charge, there is an official team headed by Sir Pierson Dixon, the British Ambassador in Paris, there is a Departmental corresponding committee here, and there is the Ministerial committee of which my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary is chairman.
§ Mr. HoltIs the Prime Minister still so fully appreciative of the great benefits to ourselves and to Europe of bringing these negotiations to a successful conclusion that he will continue relentlessly to find ways and means of doing so?
§ The Prime MinisterYes, but I think that unilateralism is a mistake. There are great benefits, so long as they are not accompanied by injury to either the Commonwealth or to British agriculture in a way which would be unacceptable.
§ Mr. NabarroIs my right hon. Friend aware that his last reply is the best I have heard him make to date?
§ The Prime MinisterIt is the same reply that I have made steadily for nine months.