HC Deb 13 April 1960 vol 621 cc1252-3

The following Question stood upon the Order Paper:

23. MR. S. SILVERMAN

TO ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whether he will take the initiative at the forthcoming Summit Conference to propose, as a means of lessening international tension and the danger of war, a non-aggression treaty in which all nations in the Warsaw Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would join.

Mr. Speaker

Mr. Silverman.

Mr. Silverman

Before asking Question No. 23, Mr. Speaker, may I ask for your guidance, and, if possible, assistance. You will see that the Question asks the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will take a certain initiative. I never asked any such Question. I asked the Prime Minister, who is alone able to take the initiative at the Summit Conference, that Question, and I heard on Monday morning that the Prime Minister had transferred it to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

I am not complaining about that: I know that I have no right to do so. The question that I am putting to you, Mr. Speaker, is whether the full character of the Question, in this particular instance, has not been changed? It is quite clear that the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs will not have the initiative at the Summit Conference, and in any event the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is not here.

I would therefore ask you, Mr. Speaker, before I ask the Question, which I do not yet do, whether you can assist me in this matter in any way? The Question on the Order Paper is not a Question which I have directed to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Speaker

I should like to think about what could be done. I do not wish to make a mocking answer, but as the question of transfer is not a matter for me I suppose that every hon. Member has to frame his Question in such a form that it is immune to vitiation by transfer. I will think about the matter, if I may. I gather that the hon. Member wants to ask his Question, nonetheless.

Mr. Silverman

Since I am in no way interested in any initiative which the Minister of State obviously will have no power to take at the Summit Conference —because he will not be there—and which the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs will have no power to take, even if he is there, I beg to ask leave not to ask the Question.