HC Deb 07 December 1955 vol 547 cc356-7
20. Mr. A. Henderson

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will instruct Her Majesty's Government's representative in the Security Council to support the admission of Outer Mongolia as a State fulfilling the conditions laid down in Article 4 of the Charter and whether he will make a statement.

35. Mr. Parkin

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what policy Her Majesty's Government is adopting in regard to the admission of new members into the United Nations.

Mr. H. Macmillan

We are supporting the Canadian Government's efforts to break the deadlock which has prevented any new admissions to the United Nations for five years. To this end we are ready to acquiesce in the admission of all 18 outstanding applicants, even though the qualifications of some of them may be open to doubt. We would be prepared to acquiesce even in Outer Mongolia, in order to break the deadlock. But if there were general support for the admission of the other 17 countries—without Outer Mongolia—we should agree.

Mr. Henderson

May I ask the Foreign Secretary whether it is correct that the Chinese Nationalist representative is threatening to exercise the veto in order to prevent the admission of these 18 States? If that be so, is it not intolerable that this representative, who sits on the Security Council largely through a legal fiction, should be able to hold up the proceedings of the United Nations in this way?

Mr. Macmillan

That is a hypothetical question—[HON. MEMBERS: "No."]—because this matter has not yet come before either the Assembly or the Security Council. We have made our position clear. We are anxious to break the deadlock. Frankly, we do not like the ideas of some of the States for whom we are asked to vote, but rather than have this deadlock continue, we would be prepared, as I have said, to acquiesce either in the admission of the whole 18 or, if it were to make for general agreement, the 17.

Mr. Henderson

Will the right hon. Gentleman answer the first part of my supplementary question? Is it a fact that the Chinese Nationalist representative has threatened to veto the admission of the 18 countries?

Mr. Macmillan

I have no knowledge of that at all.

Mr. Parkin

Can the Foreign Secretary tell us frankly whether he has informed the representatives of the United States that we regard the representative of Formosa on the Security Council as the representative of the United States or one controllable by the United States?

Mr. Macmillan

That does not arise at all out of the Question. There has been a long discussion about the 18 applicants. A new feature has been raised which I have seen rumoured in the papers but I have no knowledge of it. The whole business up to now has been about who would support the 18 or the 17. We rather dislike some of the countries for whom we are asked to vote—one of them is actually in contempt of the Hague Court—but we have reached the view—we have made our view perfectly clear—that in order to get agreement, break the deadlock, and secure the admission of countries that we want in, such as Ceylon and Italy, we are prepared to vote for either the 18 or the 17, whichever will command general support in the Assembly and the Security Council.

Mr. Nicholson

Have the Government a diplomatic representative in Outer Mongolia?

Mr. Macmillan

No, Sir.