HC Deb 04 May 1961 vol 639 cc1597-8
42. Mr. Healey

asked the Prime Minister whether he will consider making a personal appeal to Mr. Khrushchev concerning the nuclear test conference in Geneva.

The Prime Minister

I will bear the hon. Member's suggestion in mind. I regard the outcome of the Geneva conference negotiations as a matter of great importance and I am ready to consider at the appropriate time any course of action that seems likely to assist towards the resumption of constructive negotiation there.

Mr. Healey

I welcome the Prime Minister's reply. Is he aware that many of us have regarded agreement on the test ban as by far the most hopeful subject for agreement in the disarmament field between East and West, and that many of us are deeply disappointed by the recent attitude of the Soviet Government on this issue? Will he find some means of informing Mr. Khrushchev of the extent to which continued Soviet intransigence on this issue will undermine the position of all those in the West, of all parties and of all countries, who believe that it is urgently necessary to try to reach some agree- ment between the West and the East on the problem of general disarmament?

The Prime Minister

I am grateful for what the hon. Gentleman said, which expresses the view we all feel. This is the most hopeful of the things we have tried. It has been a very long, tedious, and difficult negotiation. I take some hope from the fact that it is still going on, and I assure the hon. Gentleman that we will not let it simply drift into collapse without a real effort to bring it to some advance, and I hope conclusion.

Miss Lee

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that it is not possible to separate foreign policy from defence issues? Will he, therefore, see that Britain's position in relation to Cuba is made perfectly clear so that the Soviet Union may be encouraged to co-operate more on these proposals?

The Prime Minister

That may be perfectly true as far as foreign policy as a whole is concerned. Nevertheless, the rather retrograde action, as we think, of the Russian negotiators was taken some weeks or months ago. We were disappointed that they appeared to withdraw from a position which we thought was really hopeful. We are still trying to bring them back to it.

Mr. Fell

Would my right hon. Friend agree that the conference on nuclear tests has become an absolute farce and is being used by the Soviet Union to cover its depredations into the forces of law and order throughout the world, and that what we ought to concentrate on is trying to restore law and order in those areas where Communist Russia is being most successful in getting rid of it?

The Prime Minister

That is another and larger question. With all the faults of the conference—it has made very slow progress—I think this has been achieved, that there have been no explosions in the atmosphere by any of the three Powers concerned since the conference sat.