HC Deb 31 January 1955 vol 536 cc678-9
34. Mr. Emrys Hughes

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs when he next proposes to visit Western Germany.

Mr. Nutting

My right hon. Friend has no immediate plans for visiting Western Germany.

Mr. Hughes

Does not the Minister think that his right hon. Friend would be well advised to go again to Western Germany in order to get acquainted with public opinion there, which is against German rearmament? If he cannot go officially, cannot he go incognito, disguised as a working man or as a minister of religion, in order to find out what the people of Germany are really thinking? They do not want conscription or rearmament.

Mr. Nutting

I do not accept the implication of the hon. Gentleman's supplementary question. As he well knows, the freely and properly elected majority of the German Bundestag and Parliament has supported the policy of the rearmament of Western Germany, subject to safeguards, and its contribution to European defence.