§ 1. Mr. Hector Hughesasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he is yet in a position to make a full statement on the present position of the fisheries dispute between the British and Icelandic Governments.
§ The Joint Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Douglas Dodds-Parker)I have nothing to add to the reply which I gave the hon. and learned Gentleman on 27th January.
§ Mr. Hector HughesIs it not time that these differences were settled by an amicable round-table conference, and that the two nations should stop snarling, to the detriment of the fishermen and consumers, at each other?
§ Mr. Dodds-ParkerThe Government have made it plain that we would be willing to enter into discussions, but the Icelandic Government have so far been unwilling to discuss the fishery limits which they sought to impose.
§ Mr. HoyHas the hon. Gentleman given consideration to the suggestion that the signatories to the North Sea Fisheries Convention should be called together to discuss this problem?
§ Mr. Dodds-ParkerI do not think that this would be a suitable problem for them to discuss. It is a bilateral problem between Iceland and the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. G. R. HowardWould my hon. Friend not agree that this problem is mainly a dispute between commercial interests, and that therefore it rests more with them than with the Governments concerned?
§ Mr. Dodds-ParkerThere is quite a lot in what my hon. Friend says.