§ 50. Mr. E. Johnsonasked the Prime Minister if he will discuss with Marshal Bulganin the possibility of establishing a scheme to provide funds to make possible a much greater interchange of visits between private citizens of the United Kingdom and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and to encourage and facilitate such visits in every way.
§ The Prime MinisterNo, Sir, While Her Majesty's Government are anxious to encourage contacts between private citizens of the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, and while special visits can be arranged under particular auspices, I think there would be serious difficulties in a general scheme of subsidized travel.
§ Mr. JohnsonMay I ask my right hon. Friend if he thinks it would be a good thing to send such an invitation on behalf of the British people to ordinary people in the Soviet Union, and to give the widest possible publicity at the same time to the fact that we were sending such an invitation? May I further ask him if he thinks that it might be more profitable to cultivate the grass roots rather than to try to scale the summit?
§ The Prime MinisterI have great sympathy with that suggestion and that is why the Soviet Relations Committee of the British Council, which was set up in 1955, is working on the promotion of Anglo-Soviet contacts in the cultural, scientific and technical fields. I am grateful to the many gentlemen who help in that work. A large number of exchanges of visits have taken place already under its auspices, but I think that in a general scheme of subsidised travel there would be other countries which might have a similar claim, and I could hardly ask for that general scheme to be introduced.
§ The Prime MinisterYes, Sir.