§ 11. Mr. Manderasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what decisions were arrived at at the recent meeting of the Bureau of the Disarmament Confer- 1739 ence and the Committee for the Reform of the League of Nations?
§ Mr. EdenAt its recent meeting the Bureau of the Disarmament Conference decided in the first place to communicate the text of the draft Convention on Publicity for National Defence Expenditure and the Working of an Organ of Supervision and Co-ordination to all the Governments which are or have been represented at the Conference, with the request that they inform the Secretariat of the Conference whether they are prepared, in principle, to accept a system of publicity based on that Convention. In the second place, the Bureau decided to meet again on a date to be fixed by the Council of the League of Nations, for the purpose of considering the replies from the Governments, discussing the draft Convention on Publicity for National Defence Expenditure, and deciding upon appropriate measures. Finally the Bureau instructed the Secretariat of the League of Nations to collect and communicate to the members of the Bureau any useful information obtainable as to the present position in regard to the national control of the manufacture of and trade in arms in the principal countries. No meeting of the Committee on the Application of the Principles of the Covenant has recently been held, but the Rapporteurs to that Committee met at Geneva on 31st May. They settled the procedure for the completion and publication of their respective reports, and proposed that a meeting of the full committee should be held before the opening of the next ordinary session of the Assembly.
§ Mr. ManderHas any date been fixed by which replies are to be sent in?
§ Mr. LeachIs the right hon. Gentleman of the opinion that the Disarmament Conference is still alive?
§ Mr. EdenThis is a question of publicity for budgetary expenditure on armaments, and it seems to me to be a good thing to try to get—if we can.