HC Deb 13 April 1960 vol 621 cc1233-5
4. Mr. H. Hynd

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs when he expects to be able to announce a date for the conference to draw up a peace treaty to end the war which started in 1939.

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. John Profumo)

I cannot say. The answer will depend in the first place on the progress of our forthcoming negotiations with the Soviet Government. But I should add that so far as Her Majesty's Government are concerned the formal state of war with Germany came to an end in 1951 and no peace treaty is required in order to confirm this.

Mr. Hynd

Do the Government realise that during this long delay in negotiating a peace treaty, festering sores are developing, such as the question of the Oder-Neisse line, which should be dealt with before they cause further trouble?

Mr. Profumo

None of these matters can be finally dealt with until there is a peace treaty, and that must depend on having a unified Germany.

Mr. G. Jeger

If there is to be discussion on a peace treaty, will the right hon. Gentleman recall that the war started in 1939, and that the Soviet Union at that time was not our ally but the ally of Hitlerite Germany? For the Soviet Union the war did not start until 1941.

5. Mr. Frank Allaun

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in view of the dangers to peace resulting from continuing conflicting claims regarding the eastern frontiers of Germany, what steps he is taking to secure an early peace settlement that will include the retention of the Sudetenland within Czechoslovakia.

Mr. Profumo

A final peace settlement cannot be concluded until it can be freely negotiated by a Government representing the whole of Germany. Meanwhile, Her Majesty's Government's view is that no consideration should be given at a peace settlement to any changes in Germany's frontier with Czechoslovakia effected in 1938 or subsequently.

Mr. Allaun

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that reply, but may I ask whether he has seen the recent demands by Herr Seebohm, a Federal Minister, and others, for the return to Germany of Czech Sudetenland, and also that German Czechs should stir up trouble? This is closely similar to demands which Hitler made before the war. Would the right hon. Gentleman indicate his disapproval of such demands?

Mr. Profumo

Such statements do not accord with what I understand to be the view of the Federal Government. I have made clear what Her Majesty's Government's views are.

Mr. Rankin

Would the right hon. Gentleman tell the House exactly what he means by the use of the phrase "a unified Germany"? Do the Government consider that it covers the "lost" territories now under Polish control?

Mr. Profumo

I do not think I can add to what I have said in my Answer. If the hon. Gentleman will look at it he will find it quite clear.