HC Deb 31 October 1955 vol 545 cc669-71
47. Mr. Swingler

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why the United Kingdom delegate to the United Nations General Assembly opposed the admission of the Chinese People's Republic.

60. Mr. Donnelly

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why the British Government delegation at the United Nations voted for further postponement of the consideration of China's representation at the United Nations.

84. Mr. Fernyhough

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on what grounds the representative of Her Majesty's Government at the General Assembly Meeting of the United Nations, on 20th September, voted against the proposal to unseat the Chinese Nationalist delegation in favour of the Peking Government.

Mr. Nutting

Her Majesty's Government recognise that the question of Chinese representation in the United Nations is one of the issues which will have to be settled before normal peaceful relations can be re-established in the Far East. But, as I explained to the General Assembly, we did not consider that it would be timely or in the interests of the United Nations to debate the question during the current session. Differing views on it are strongly held, and debates would do more harm than good and would place an intolerable strain upon the United Nations.

Mr. Swingler

What on earth is the point of this policy of postponing effective Chinese representation at U.N.O.? Since the fighting stopped in Korea, what purpose has been served in keeping outside the United Nations the effective Chinese Government and keeping the stooge Chiang Kai-shek in it? Does the Minister not consider that now is the time to get effective representation at U.N.O. in order to be able to get the kind of discussion which he has indicated?

Mr. Nutting

The hon. Member asked what is the purpose of the policy. My answer is that the purpose of the policy is to get the timing on this decision right and not wrong.

Mr. Younger

Does the right hon. Gentleman really think that the way to get a decision on this is to avoid exerting any pressure at all, which seems to be the policy of Her Majesty's Government? What is he waiting for? What is the event which, he thinks, will eventually make it suitable to press this matter?

Mr. Nutting

We hope that in time this matter will be settled. [Laughter.] Of course. We recognise that we cannot see full normal peaceful relations established in the Far East until this matter has been settled. But in the view of Her Majesty's Government, this is not the time to press this strain upon the United Nations, which is so deeply divided upon so highly controversial an issue.

Mr. Donnelly

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the question of timing now is even more important than he has given the House to understand, that early in the New Year the American primary elections will be beginning, that these will go on through next year until November and the Presidential Election, that if there is a change of administration the new President will not take office until March, 1957, and that this matter, therefore, cannot possibly appear at the United Nations with American concurrence until the autumn of 1957? Does the right hon. Gentleman really think that this point of view is best served by the British Government by putting it off until it can become an issue in American internal politics?

Mr. Nutting

The hon. Member must not invite me to engage in a discussion on the American domestic political scene.

Mr. H. Morrison

Was not the question of my hon. Friend the Member for Pembroke (Mr. Donnelly) relevant? It was that we shall get involved in interminable delay if we do not look out. Does the Minister not recall that when the Labour Government were in office I said that at that moment we did concur in not facing the issue of admitting Communist China, but that was because fighting was going on and it was not appropriate at that moment? But it has been a long time since fighting ceased. We have to grasp this nettle at some time, and it ought to be done now.

Mr. Nutting

I entirely agree with the right hon. Member that this problem has to be solved and that this nettle, to use his own phrase, has to be grasped, but what I am dealing with is the action taken in the United Nations this year and, in the judgment of Her Majesty's Government, whose position regarding the Chinese People's Government is perfectly well known—it is the same as the position of the late Government and of the majority of the United Nations, 42 nations to the rest—this was not the time at which to take a decision upon this issue.

Mr. Warbey

As negotiations are at present in progress for a package agreement for the admission of some 18 nations to U.N.O. during the current session, would not the Minister agree that such a package agreement would be complete nonsense unless the Chinese People's Republic were included in the package?

Mr. Nutting

No, Sir, not for one moment, because the issue is completely different. The Chinese issue in the United Nations is not whether China should be represented, but who should represent China.

Mr. Fell

Would my right hon. Friend take courage in trying to restrain the admission of the Government of the Chinese People's Republic into the United Nations from the fact that there are many people both in this country and in the rest of the free world who believe that the Government of the People's Republic of China has offended against every tenet of international law and is not yet a fit body to become a member of the United Nations?

Mr. Fernyhough

Does not the Minister believe that the time has come when Her Majesty's Government should have a mind of their own and not continually trail behind America?

Mr. Nutting

Her Majesty's Government have a mind of their own, and it is the mind which I have expressed to the House.

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