HC Deb 25 June 1958 vol 590 c408
20. Mr. P. Noel-Baker

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to what extent Her Majesty's Government are prepared to accept the system of international inspection embodied in the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which came into force in October, 1957, for the control of the cut-off of new production of fissile material for warlike use.

Mr. Selwyn Lloyd

The International Agency has not yet considered the methods to be used in implementing the safeguard provisions in the Agency Statute. It would therefore be premature to estimate how much there is likely to be in common between the Agency scheme and any scheme appropriate for control of the cut-off.

Mr. Noel-Baker

Am I not right in reading the Statute to mean that there shall be a system of permanent, continuous inspection by resident inspectors of the kind that the Foreign Secretary urged on the Russians in 1954?

Mr. Lloyd

I have the Statute with me, and all I can say is that, on my reading of it, I think that it is rather vague as to how exactly these various obligations are to be carried out.

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