47. Mrs. Butlerasked the Prime Minister if he will help to promote agreement on the suspension of nuclear tests by setting up control stations on all British territory and inviting the United Nations to supply personnel for them.
§ The Prime MinisterThis is, indeed, one of the matters which we want to work out with the United States and Soviet Governments at the Geneva Conference. So far as any control posts on our territory are concerned, we are certainly prepared to have them manned by international staff.
Mrs. ButlerIs not there a hope that such practical unilateral action taken now could, by demonstrating the faith of this country in the possibility of reaching agreement to end the menace to humanity of nuclear weapon tests, transform the whole situation at Geneva? We should have nothing to lose by it, and we might succeed in cutting through the Gordian knot in which those discussions seem to have become tied.
§ The Prime MinisterI appreciate the purpose in the hon. Lady's mind, but these negotiations and discussions are going on, and if control is to be effective there must be agreement on the structure of the international organisation, and on many other matters, as stated by my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary on 24th November.
§ Mr. GaitskellWill the Prime Minister make clear whether it is simply a dispute about the controls to be set up that is holding up the Geneva negotiations, or are there other obstacles between Her Majesty's Government and the Soviet Government?
§ The Prime MinisterAs the right hon. Gentleman knows, we are discussing the agenda and the method of approaching the problem, but the present difficulty is the attitude of the Soviet representative who will not discuss controls until the text of a treaty to end tests has been 553 agreed. We regard controls and the continuance of tests as related matters neither of which can be settled without the other.
§ Mr. GaitskellDoes it matter in which order these issues are discussed—as long as the signing of the agreement is, of course, made dependent on both points?
§ The Prime MinisterThat, of course, is just the point at issue.
§ Mr. GaitskellThe Prime Minister says that this is just the point at issue, but what does he mean by that? Does he say that the point at issue is the order in which things should be discussed, or not? If it is, why should not we agree to discuss the agreement on the suspension of tests first, so long as the signing of the agreement is, as I say, held up until there has also been satisfactory discussion and agreement on the controls to be established?
§ The Prime MinisterI think that that is really the point. The Soviet idea is first to have an agreement on tests, and then to have a discussion on controls. That we cannot agree to. But I am sure that what the right hon. Gentleman has in mind is what we are striving for, and I am not at all without hope that we are making some progress towards what I agree would be a sensible agreement, to discuss the matter as a whole, and then towards the signing of a comprehensive agreement in which everything would be included.