§ 28. Mr. S. Silvermanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what steps he proposes to take to secure the representation on the Security Council of the de factoGovernment of China, in view of the fact that in the absence of such representation doubt has been cast on the legality of the Council's decisions under the Charter.
§ Mr. EdenThe present Chinese representative on the Security Council is properly accredited in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the Council. There can, therefore, be no doubt as to the legality of the Council's decisions.
§ Mr. SilvermanDoes not the right hon. Gentleman realise that, whatever the truth about this purely legal question may be—and there are considerable doubts about it—nevertheless the whole idea of the Charter, which established the Security Council, was to make certain that there were not differences of opinion on policies of the United Nations among those actually able to speak in the name of the five great Powers, of whom China was one, and that it is really no answer to all the people in the Far East, who are now in the course of a vast revolution, to tell them that they are being adequately and legally represented by somebody in whom they have no confidence whatever, and who speaks for no Far Eastern nation?
§ Mr. EdenHowever that may be, the hon. Member's Question asked me about the legality of the Council's decision, and that is the question I have answered. As to the wider question, I am in complete agreement with my predecessor's observations of last June, which I may, perhaps, quote:
His Majesty's Government … believe that … the Central People's Government should represent China in the United Nations. In view, however, of that Government's persistence in behaviour which is inconsistent 1184 with the purposes and principles of the Charter, it appears to His Majesty's Government that consideration of this question should be postponed."—[OFFICIAL REPORT. 27th June, 1951; Vol. 489, c. 1371.]
§ Mr. SilvermanWill the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind that the latter part of that quotation was a long time ago and that a great many people now doubt very much whether it is reasonable to expect the Government of a great nation to obey the rules of a club which it is not allowed to join? Will he bear in mind that the last sentence of my question is not the point about which I was asking him? The Question really asked him what steps, if any, he was proposing to take to secure that the de factoGovernment of China was brought into the United Nations machinery.
§ Mr. EdenAs regards the applicability of last year's quotation to the present time, I would only remark that the very condition which the previous Government found unacceptable for the support of China's membership at that time applies now: that is, the fact that she is actually breaking the rules of the club that she desires to join.
§ Sir D. SavoryWould not the representation of the Communist Government on the Security Council be vigorously opposed by the United States, who have never made the mistake that we made of recognising this Communist Government in China?