§ Mr. Robens(by Private Notice) asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in view of the disturbances in Jordan involving risk to British life and property, he will make a statement?
§ The Joint Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Lord John Hope)I regret to say that over the last five days there have been disturbances in the main cities of Jordan. These disturbances followed the resignation of the Jordan Government headed by Said el Mufti. They appear to have been mainly among the large refugee population of the country, which, as the House knows, numbers about 800,000. It seems likely that they were deliberately incited by misrepresentation from outside the country of the policy of the Jordan Government, especially in connection with the Bagdad Pact.
Her Majesty's Government have never concealed from the Jordan Government their hope that the Jordan Government will accede to the Pact. At the suggestion of the Jordan Government, discussions have recently taken place in Amman between representatives of Her Majesty's Government and the Jordan Government regarding the assistance which Her Majesty's Government could afford Jordan in such an event.
2030 The Jordan authorities have given Her Majesty's Ambassador a full assurance that they are alive to their responsibilities for the protection of British and other foreign lives and property and are taking all measures to secure them. In spite of their efforts there have unfortunately been some incidents in which British lives have been threatened and British property damaged in the course of the disturbances.
On 18th December a crowd attacked a Royal Air Force ambulance and inflicted some minor injuries on the driver. On 19th December a British Army sergeant, D. Burns of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, was stabbed in the chest in Amman. He was rescued by soldiers of the Arab Legion, who took him immediately to the R.A.F. Hospital in Amman, whence he was flown to Habbaniya. I regret to say that his condition on 20th December was still described as dangerously ill. The same day a crowd broke the windows of the British Bank of the Middle East in Amman and did some minor damage to Her Majesty's Vice-Consulate at Nablus. In Jerusalem, so far as I am aware, no British subjects have been hurt and no British property damaged. There have been some other minor incidents involving British subjects on the West Bank, but I am not yet in a position to give details.
§ Mr. RobensDoes not this show the whole bankruptcy of the Middle East policy of the Government? Does it not show that the optimistic references made in the Middle East debate in this House only a few days ago were wide of the mark? Is it really the case that the Bagdad Pact and the arrangements by General Templer to get Jordan to accept the Bagdad Pact have gone so badly and the preparatory work was done so wrongly, that instead of having a country that will support the Bagdad Pact we shall have a situation in which we are trying to thrust the Bagdad Pact down the throats of the Jordan people—a similar situation to that which we have in Cyprus of a hostile country—instead of trying to develop some collective defence arrangements?
§ Lord John HopeI must say I think it is regrettable that the right hon. Gentleman has made these deductions. [Interruption.] I am trying to answer the right 2031 hon. Member for Blyth (Mr. Robens), if I may. Whenever any step is contemplated in the interests of peace and stability in the Middle East, or anywhere else, there are, of course, bad elements which will try to disrupt it. I should have thought the House of Commons was the last place where such elements ought to be encouraged.
§ Mr. RobensDoes not the Joint Under-Secretary feel that it is wild and extravagant language to accuse a responsible Member of the Opposition—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."]—certainly, in the words that he has used—of a desire to stir up subversive elements in the Middle East? It seems to be a disgrace to the position he occupies. May I further ask him whether it is not the case that the Government have bungled this matter badly? We have had General Templer out there for twelve days. Instead of having a nation whose population is in favour of the Bagdad Pact we have a Government whose population is strongly hostile to it. Does not that indicate how bankrupt the policy of this Government has been in the Middle East?
§ Lord John HopeIt is not at all the fact that the population of Jordan is hostile to the Bagdad Pact.
§ Mr. Fenner BrockwayIs it not possible that there is an interpretation of these events other than that of external disruptive elements? Is it not the case that in Asia there is a widely-held view that those nations should be independent of both blocs, and that the opposition to the Bagdad Pact is a reflection of that quite natural attitude on the part of the Asian nations?
§ Lord John HopeNo, Sir, I do not think that that is so at all. If I may revert to what the right hon. Gentleman said, I was not, of course, accusing him or anyone else in the House of wanting disruption, but I was suggesting that it is sometimes possible to make innuendos or suggestions which have that effect, whether one wants it or not. That is what the right hon. Gentleman was doing.
§ Mr. GaitskellIs the hon. Gentleman aware that we take the strongest exception to criticism of the Government's Middle East policy—which is very genuine on this side—being interpreted as attempting to stir up trouble in the 2032 Middle East? Does he really think that General Templer's visit, which appears only to have produced anti-British riots, was, in the circumstances, at all advisable?
§ Lord John HopeI do not think that anything that has been done was inadvisable—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."]—nor is the right hon. Gentleman entitled to assume that the whole policy there has collapsed. That is very far from being the case, and what is now happening in Jordan will pass over.
§ Mr. GaitskellWould it not have been very much wiser to have found out, before General Templer went out, what the reaction of the population would be to his visit?
§ Mr. SpeakerI would remind the House that I have to think of the interests of those hon. Members who have debates on the Motion for the Adjournment of the House. Lord John Hope.