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Scarborough, England, Oct. 5. — The lingering doubt about Britain’s political will to enter the European Economic Community was effectively dispelled today at the Labor party conference.

By a 2-to-1 margin, the conference approved the Labor government’s decision to apply for membership in the Common Market. By a somewhat smaller majority, it rejected a call to reaffirm the stiff conditions for membership laid down by the party five years ago.

The main vote in favor of the government’s policy was 4,147,000 to 2,032,000.

Three other votes were taken on Common Market resolutions. A demand that the government set stringent preconditions on any attempt to join the EEC lost by 3,536,000 to 2,539,000. Approval of the government’s decision to attempt to join the Common Market with no preconditions being set was given by a vote of 3,359,000 to 2,697,000. And a call for the government to drop the attempt and change its policy was defeated by 4,539,000 votes to 529,000.

The approval of the government decision was the most important vote of the conference for Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his government. If it had gone the other way, the result could well have crippled the government’s attempt to bargain its way into the Common Market over French opposition.

All three major parties in Britain are now unequivocally in favor of participation in the community. The Liberals led the way and the Conservatives made the applications that failed in 1963.

The actual chances for Britain to get into the community remain entirely another matter. Every indication is that France will delay and oppose it with all possible devices. And last week’s report of the commissioners of the EEC on the question raised doubts about the readiness of the British economy for membership.

The debate in the Spa Grand Hall here this morning had special meaning against the background of Labor party history.

— International Herald Tribune, October, 6, 1967 —