§ 30. Mr. Warbeyasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why the proposals for general disarmament submitted to the Geneva Conference by the Western Powers do not include proposals for nuclear disarmament.
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreThe Western Peace Plan presented by the Western Foreign Ministers on 14th May includes the proposal that the Four Powers should
in an appropriate forum, initiate discussion of possible staged and controlled comprehensive disarmament measures".Discussion of nuclear disarmament proposals would naturally be included in such terms of reference.
§ Mr. WarbeyWhile we all want to see all-round disarmament achieved, is 1182 it not the case that the need for a special concentrated effort to bring about international agreement for prohibition of the manufacture and use of nuclear weapons is enormously strengthened by the imminent danger of the spread of these weapons to a number of countries outside the nuclear group?
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreThat raises the whole question of what our disarmament policy should be. Her Majesty's Government have always made it quite clear that they believe in balanced armament reductions; that is to say, reductions in conventional arms and nuclear arms pari passu.
§ Mr. BevanIn the event of an agreement being reached, even including nuclear weapons, between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union, have Her Majesty's Government any policy whatever for arresting the spread of the possession of these weapons by other nations?
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreThat is a very much wider question than that upon the Order Paper.