Visitor at Yale

Between the Conservative and Labor programs lies a third way for Britain--the Liberal Party. Small but spunky, it has not held power since the Lloyd George Cabinet in World War I. But in the past year, the Liberals have made impressive gains in local elections and in national by-elections proved to be a dangerous stealer of votes from both Labor and the Tories. The big parties now face the possibility that in a general election the Liberals may hold the balance of power.

Last week in New Haven, Conn., where he was Yale's second Chubb Fellow of the year, Liberal Leader Jo Grimond conceded that his party has little chance of any "immense increase" in voting strength under the present electoral system in Britain. However, he said, the Liberals "are the only party in Britain today that is paying any attention to the implications of Europe." He chided the Labor Party for its anti-Common Market stand, and censured Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's Tory government for having made Common Market membership "more difficult" by its failure to instruct and educate the British public on the issue.

"You must understand that the political side of the Common Market agreement is going to be extremely important in the years to come," he added. "European elections and a European parliament are not an impossible eventuality." Under those conditions, thinks Grimond, the Liberals could conceivably "become part of a widely based progressive or radical party" supporting such Liberal ideas as changes in the educational and social system, and limited redistribution of property ownership. With citizenship in a United Europe, concluded Grimond, "our friendship with the Americans should not be based on any exclusive interests, but on the coordination of European and American interests."

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