HC Deb 04 December 1957 vol 579 cc377-9
37. Mr. Warbey

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what political proposals for the safeguarding of peace in Europe he intends to place before the forthcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organisation meeting in Paris.

Mr. Selwyn Lloyd

I am not prepared to make a statement in public as to what proposals may be put forward by Her Majesty's Government at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Conference.

Mr. Warbey

Does the Foreign Secretary agree that the withdrawal of Soviet troops and Soviet military bases from Central and Eastern Europe would make a significant contribution towards peace in Europe? Does he think that this can he achieved by forcing the Soviet Union to give ground? Will he agree that, in the present circumstances, it can be achieved only by reciprocal action and a new political initiative on the part of the British and other Western Governments?

Mr. Lloyd

All that goes very far wide of the Question on the Paper, which deals with the British proposals, and which I have answered.

40. Mr. Harold Davies

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will propose at the forthcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Conference that the British, French, United States and West German Governments should reconsider their refusal of 29th July to treat the existence of the Organisation as a subject for negotiation with the Soviet Union, and should instead signify their willingness to discuss with the Soviet Union how progressively to replace the respective military obligations of the Organisation and the Warsaw Alliance by common obligations and arrangements on an all-European scale within the United Nations to keep the peace, control arms, unify Germany democratically and withdraw all foreign forces from the territories of Germany and her neighbours.

Mr. Selwyn Lloyd

No, Sir.

Mr. Davies

Does not the Foreign Secretary sincerely believe that we have reached a pitch where neither side of the House wishes to make cheap party capital out of this matter, which is an issue of human survival? Would he not, therefore, at this juncture be prepared to review this anachronism called "N.A.T.O." and take the initiative which many of the American people would welcome, as was demonstrated by the Reith Lectures and Mr. Kennan's broadcast the other night? This is a chance for England, if the Foreign Secretary has the courage to take it. Why not take it?

Mr. Lloyd

For Britain to take the initiative of seeking to dismantle and wind up N.A.T.O. would be a catastrophe for this country and for Western Europe.

Mr. Davies

On a point of order. May I ask your guidance, Mr. Speaker. This is a cheap way of twisting a Question—

Hon. Members

Oh.

Mr. Speaker

Order. The hon. Member appeals to me on a point of order, but—

Mr. Davies

It is cheap.

Mr. Speaker

—he must see that his own language conforms to that high standard of Parliamentary behaviour.

Mr. S. Silverman

On a point of order.

Mr. Speaker

Order. Mr. Ridsdale.

Mr. Ridsdale

Is the Foreign Secretary aware how many of us on Government benches are disturbed about the constant slighting by hon. Members opposite of—

Mr. Speaker

Order. I thought the hon. Member was rising to a point of order. Certainly the hon. and gallant Member for the Isle of Ely (Major Legge-Bourke) rose.

Major Legge-Bourke

On a point of order. I think the House knows me well enough to believe that I do not wish to restrict freedom of speech in any way, but a good many Questions have been put on the Order Paper which I suggest to you are open to the suspicion that they are not put down with a view to representing the interests of constituents. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] Because of that, Sir, I was wondering whether you would be prepared to consider reviewing the examination of Questions, particularly where foreign affairs is concerned, by the Table, when they are put in—

Mr. Hamilton

Have another tribunal.

Major Legge-Bourke

in order to ensure that Questions put down are not such as would give very great encouragement to the country's principal enemy?

Mr. Speaker

That is not a point of order of any sort at all.

Mr. S. Silverman

May I raise the point of order raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Leek (Mr. Harold Davies) a few moments ago? Provided proper language is used, would not my hon. Friend be perfectly entitled to raise with you as a point of order a misrepresentation, either deliberate or inadvertent, which the Foreign Secretary put upon his Question in the form of the Answer he gave? If that was a misrepresentation, would not my hon. Friend be entitled to correct it?

Mr. Speaker

Not as a point of order. If the hon. Member thinks he has been misrepresented he should take advantage of some opportunity for saying so, but it is not for me to rule on it as a point of order.

Mr. Davies

I said it in clear language, Mr. Speaker.