§ 44. Mr. Greenwoodasked the Prime Minister whether he will inform the American and Russian Heads of State that Her Majesty's Government have no intention of resuming nuclear testing, and will welcome international inspection posts in the United Kingdom.
§ 46. Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Prime Minister if, in order to break the two-and-a-half-years' deadlock in the nuclear test talks, he will forthwith inform the heads of the American and Russian Governments that Her Majesty's Government will not carry out any further test explosions and will welcome inspectors at control posts in Great Britain.
§ The Prime MinisterHer Majesty's Government have repeatedly stated that they will not carry out nuclear test explosions while useful discussions continue at Geneva. Meanwhile, all three countries have stated that they will accept in their territory such control posts and inspection arrangements as may be agreed.
§ Mr. GreenwoodPending the general agreement to which the Prime Minister has referred, will the right hon. Gentleman take the action suggested in the Question? Is he aware that there are many people all over the world who are distressed by the lack of progress so far and who believe that the deadlock can be broken only in this way?
§ The Prime MinisterI do not think it would break the deadlock for us unilaterally to put up control posts. The whole purpose of the control posts is that there should be multilateral agreement. Meanwhile, although there is a deadlock, there are no explosions made by these three Powers.
§ Mr. AllaunIs not this a case of each of the three Governments waiting for the other two to act first? If, while remaining at the conference, Britain gave the lead, would not that do more than anything else to bring such moral pressure to bear on the other two that they would follow? In any case, what loss is there to Britain and to humanity if the present suspension of tests is made permanent?
§ The Prime MinisterThe whole object of the negotiations, which I hope will soon be resumed, is to get a general agreement. Obviously, that is far the best thing we can hope to get. I do not think that it would help to get a general agreement if we were unilaterally to say that we would do what we were trying to persuade the others to do.
§ Mr. AllaunDoes not the Prime Minister agree that two and a half years—and a period before that—is a very long time and that the present methods have so far failed and that it is likely that action of a limited kind is the only way to break the deadlock?
§ The Prime MinisterThey have so far failed to get general agreement on setting up control posts all over different parts of the world, but, on the other hand, during the two and a half years none of these three Powers, so far as we know, has made any of these explosions.
§ Mr. Emrys HughesDid not the Prime Minister go to Russia unilaterally?
§ The Prime MinisterYes, Sir, and Mr. Khrushchev to America unilaterally. It is very difficult to go anywhere except oneself.