HC Deb 05 April 1954 vol 526 cc19-20
36. Mr. Beswick

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the nature of the objections which Her Majesty's Government now hold to the proposal that China should assume the full duties and obligations of membership of the United Nations organisation.

The Minister of State (Mr. Selwyn Lloyd)

I gave a full statement of the points which affect Her Majesty's Government's consideration of the matter when I spoke in the debate on 30th July last. These considerations are still valid today and I have nothing to add to them.

Mr. Beswick

As the purpose of the Geneva Conference is to try to get a settlement of questions with which China is intimately concerned, and if the only objections in this matter are those to which the Minister referred in his speech, can he say why this whole thing cannot be discussed at the Geneva Conference?

Mr. Lloyd

If the hon. Member will refresh his memory about what I said on 30th July, he will understand the answer to his question.

Mr. Beswick

The Minister will remember that in his speech he did not refer to the necessity—as stated by Mr. Walter F. Robertson, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs—that the heart of the present policy towards China is that there should be kept alive the constant threat of military action vis-à-vis Red China in the hope that at some point there will be an internal breakdown. Would the Minister say whether there is any possibility of reconciling his objections to those stated by the United States Assistant Secretary of State?

Mr. Lloyd

One of the matters to which I referred was the progress made at the political conference on Korea. That conference has not yet met.