§ 34. Mr. Harold Daviesasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in view of the Soviet refusal to accept the United States' open skies plan, now being discussed at the Ten-Power Conference on Disarmament at Geneva, on the ground that such a plan would lead to aerial surveys of Soviet territory, whether he will now make it clear that Great Britain will not now support the plan.
§ Mr. ProfumoNo details of a new United States "open skies" plan have been published. It would, therefore, be 415 premature for Her Majesty's Government to express an opinion about it. The plan is not being discussed at the Ten-Power Conference in Geneva.
§ Mr. DaviesWhile thanking the right hon. Gentleman for that Answer, may I ask if he is aware that the majority of people in this country, irrespective of the political party they support, are afraid of this policy of a mass of bases all over Europe and would protest most certainly if Britain were used for bases for an open skies plan which might deteriorate into further U2 espionage flights? Will the right hon. Gentleman assure the people of Britain that no bases in Britain will be used for such purposes, whatever may result from this discussion of an open skies policy?
§ Mr. ProfumoThat is a very much wider question. While not wanting to be involved in it, I think the hon. Member should put down that question to the Minister of Defence. I have tried to answer about the open skies plan. Aerial surveys as such form part of the disarmament plans put forward even by the Soviet Union, although in that case they come in the last stage.