§ 33. Mr. Healeyasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what official representations he has received from the United States Secretary of State concerning a solution through the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation of the Cyprus problem.
§ 38. Mr. Donnellyasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the nature of the official representations made to him by the United States Government regarding the effect of the Cyprus situation on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
§ Mr. Selwyn LloydNo such representations have been received.
§ Mr. HealeyIn view of the fact that the American Secretary of State has publicly suggested recently that N.A.T.O. should be used to deal with the Cyprus problem; that on Saturday the British Prime Minister admitted, at last, that Cyprus is an international and not purely a national question; and that all the N.A.T.O. countries have the same interest as Great Britain in safeguarding the supplies of Middle East oil; will not the Foreign Secretary consider using N.A.T.O. to solve this tragic problem which at present threatens to wreck the whole of the N.A.T.O. activities in the eastern Mediterranean?
§ Mr. LloydIf the hon. Gentleman reads again what was said by the American Secretary of State he will find that Mr. Dulles made it clear that he was dealing with a hypothetical situation, and that his remarks did not apply to the present situation. No useful purpose would be served by referring the present situation to N.A.T.O. at the moment.
§ Mr. DonnellyIs the right hon. and learned Gentleman saying that no discussions of any kind about Cyprus have taken place within the framework of N.A.T.O.?
§ Mr. LloydThe Question deals with what official representations have been received from the United States Secretary of State.
§ Mr. RobensIn view of the fact that the Prime Minister recently said that the question of Cyprus was the question of Middle East oil, and in view of the fact that the Americans are as intensely interested in the Middle East oil as we are, is it not right and proper that the N.A.T.O. organisation should be used among the Allies to deal with the question of Cyprus?
§ Mr. LloydThe matter to consider is how best we may get results. My own view is that at present it would be a mistake and not an advantage to refer the matter to N.A.T.O.
§ Mr. HealeyOn a point of order. When I tabled my Question I did not include the word "official" before the word "representations". That word was inserted by the Table Office, and I was given the explanation that it was necessary. I see that in Question No. 31 the word "official" was not inserted before the word "representations". Am I to understand that there is some political difference between the representations made in the first case and in the second?
§ Mr. SpeakerThat question rather beats me at the moment. A Question must relate to a Minister's responsibility, and it may be that in the second Question official representations are necessary to put that responsibility on the Minister. But I must confess that I should need to study this point a little longer to see what the answer is.
§ Mr. HealeyMay it not also be that the Foreign Office has received unofficial representations, but does not want to admit it?
§ Mr. SpeakerI think I was correct in what I said. Before a Minister becomes responsible for answering about representations from another Government, they must be official representations, and not merely representations from someone. In the one case the reference is to the Japanese Government, and that implies that the representations are official, because they come from the Government. In the way in which the hon. Member has worded his Question it says the representations come from the United States Secretary of State, and they may not necessarily be the views of the United States Government as a whole.
§ Mr. LloydMay I relieve the minds of hon. Members by saying that I have received neither official nor unofficial representations from the American Secretary of State.