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The `` overseas '' democracies have generally encouraged the European unification movement without seriously considering the wisdom of their own full participation in a broader Atlantic community.

The United States and Canada belong only to NATO and the new O.E.C.D..

Britain until recently went along in some areas with all of the enthusiasm of the groom at a shotgun wedding.

In other areas it held back, pleading its Commonwealth bonds.

Now Britain has decided to seek admission to the European Economic Community and it seems certain that she will be joined by some of her partners in the loose Free Trade Area of the `` Outer Seven ''.

Besides its historical significance as a break with the centuries-old tradition of British insularity, Britain's move, if successful, will constitute an historic landmark of the first importance in the movement toward the unification of Europe and the Western world.