§ 8. Mr. Zilliacusasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to what extent the Government still consider themselves entitled, as declared by the Prime Minister in the House on 17th July, 1958, to despatch British forces at the request of the ruler of any country who may ask for such assistance to enable him to defeat a rising in his own country which he ascribes to indirect aggression or infiltration and subversion by foreign agents.
§ Mr. ProfumoI do not accept the hon. Member's version of the statement made by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 17th July, 1958. With regard to the complicated hypothesis raised in his Question, I can only tell the hon. Member that Her Majesty's Government would have to deal with any new situation of the sort envisaged by his Question in the light of the particular circumstances of the case and of their international obligations and duties affecting it.
§ Mr. ZilliacusWill the hon. Gentleman state whether the Government consider that, under the resolution on the Middle East passed at the last General Assembly on the initiative of the Arab States, they still remain free to act in the way they acted in Jordan and to use the arguments for action that were used by the Prime Minister on 17th July?
§ Mr. ProfumoI cannot commit Her Majesty's Government as to the precise circumstances in which they might consider it right to send assistance in the future.