HC Deb 19 December 1955 vol 547 cc1653-5
50. Mr. A. Henderson

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what action has been taken on the proposal of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom that a group of scientists representing each of the countries on the United Nations Disarmament Sub-Committee should confer and produce a report on the possibilities of controlling nuclear weapons.

57. Mr. de Freitas

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what steps have been taken to hold a conference of scientists representing the members of the United Nations Committee on Disarmament to consider the scientific, as opposed to the political aspects of the international control of atomic weapons.

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Anthony Nutting)

No specific action has yet been taken on this proposal, which I made in the United Nations Sub-Committee on 7th October. It may be assumed, however, that the Disarmament Sub-Committee will revert to this subject when it meets again.

Mr. Henderson

Is it not a fact that the five Governments, including the Russian Government, represented on the Disarmament Sub-Committee, are agreed that unless the scientists can produce a working scheme for detecting stocks and accumulations of nuclear weapons, there is little likelihood of a general disarmament agreement? If that is so, is it not of major importance that some action should be taken to deal with the problem?

Mr. Nutting

I am grateful to the right hon. and learned Gentleman for his very helpful supplementary question. Unfortunately, it is not completely true to say that the five Governments are agreed on this matter. The right hon. and learned Gentleman will have seen that a variation of the proposal which I made in the Disarmament Sub-Committee is contained in a Resolution which was passed by the United Nations Assembly only a week ago, and that the Soviet Union voted against that proposal. We shall go on pegging away to try to get their agreement to some scheme of this kind.

Mr. de Freitas

Is it not of the greatest importance that the right hon. Gentleman should impress upon all the Governments concerned that it is only right that the scientists who invented the bomb should be let loose to try to find some means of detecting stores of the bomb? Would the right hon. Gentleman not agree that there is no time to lose, and that we cannot grope around any more?

Mr. Nutting

That idea was very much in my mind when I made the proposal.

Mr. Warbey

When did Her Majesty's Government first discover that this difficulty of detecting stocks of nuclear weapons would make it impossible to have a comprehensive disarmament agreement?

Mr. Nutting

We had known for some time that it was not possible to be 100 per cent. sure that all nuclear weapons could be discovered under a comprehensive disarmament agreement, but on 10th May the Soviet Government said in terms that such a disarmament could not be made without the assurance that all nuclear weapons could be discovered and that it was impossible at the moment to discover them.

Mr. Gaitskell

May we take it that, whatever the position with regard to stocks of nuclear weapons, Her Majesty's Government have not given up hope of a general disarmament agreement on conventional weapons?

Mr. Nutting

We have not given up hope of a disarmament agreement on conventional weapons, and we also hope ultimately to achieve a comprehensive agreement embracing nuclear weapons, but we cannot proceed to that until we have discovered means of control and have broken through this scientific barrier.