§ 53. Mr. de Freitasasked the Minister of Defence what arrangements he made in Washington for the Royal Air Force to set up and maintain United States guided missiles the warheads of which will remain in the control of the United States of America.
§ Mr. SandysI would refer the hon. Member to the information given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 1st April.
§ Mr. de FreitasWhat happened at Washington and Bermuda which induced the Government to agree to allowing the United States Government to exercise a veto on the use by the Royal Air Force of guided missiles operationally?
§ Mr. SandysIt has been explained that the restrictions on the use of these rockets are similar to the restrictions placed on the use of American bomber aircraft based in this country.
§ Mr. de FreitasIs it not a fact that they are quite different? Is it not the case that they are American bombers which are based here, and that these are R.A.F. guided missiles; and that the United States Government will have a veto on the operational use of R.A.F. equipment?
§ Mr. SandysI sympathise with the point of view of the hon. Member, but it is no use our talking as though we had a choice between having American rockets with some restrictions or British rockets with no restrictions. As the hon. Member knows, we are a number of years behind the Americans in the development of these weapons. The choice was to have American rockets with some restrictions or no rockets at all for some years.
§ Mr. E. FletcherWhat is the point of having rockets without warheads? Are we going to make our own warheads? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that we should be much happier if he could make arrangements with the United States Government so that we could have the warheads as well?
§ Mr. SandysOf course.