§ Q2. Mr. A. Hendersonasked the Prime Minister whether he will now make a statement on the holding of a summit conference.
§ Q11. Mr. Prenticeasked the Prime Minister whether he is now in a position to announce plans for a summit conference.
§ The Prime MinisterI have nothing to add to what I told the House on 10th April.
§ Mr. HendersonIs the Prime Minister aware that there is a widespread belief that the achievement of East-West agreement would be greatly facilitated by an early meeting between the Western leaders and Mr. Khrushchev? Will he not give the House an assurance that he will propose to President Kennedy that such a meeting should take place at an early date?
§ The Prime MinisterAll these will be matters for discussion, of course, but it would be unwise to make any statement at this moment.
§ Mr. PrenticeIf there is no attempt to rescue the Geneva deadlock by an early summit meeting, are we not faced with a situation in which we shall have tests on Christmas Island followed by a comparable series of Soviet tests, a situation in which no progress is likely to be made for some months either on the test ban treaty or on wider disarmament? Would it not be more realistic and imaginative to postpone the 683 Christmas Island tests and try to make progress with a summit meeting?
§ The Prime MinisterThere are later Questions on that which I will try to answer.
§ Mr. GaitskellWould not the Prime Minister agree that there is something in the argument that it will be difficult to reach agreement with the Russians except at the highest level, and that Mr. Khrushchev is not very willing that concessions should be made to the Western point of view except in an agreement which he himself has negotiated? Will the Prime Minister bear in mind that while it is obviously necessary carefully to consider the timing of any summit conference and the preparations for it, it may well be that this problem cannot be solved except at the top?
§ The Prime MinisterYes, Sir, I accept that that may be so, but that is why it would be wiser for me to discuss all this with President Kennedy and the other Heads of States or Governments with whom we are allied rather than make a statement today.
§ Mr. GrimondEven if the present series of tests continues, can the Prime Minister assure us that in his conversations with President Kennedy he will urge him to draw up some plan by which there can be an agreement on a lest ban before a still further series of tests by both sides follow the present series?
§ The Prime MinisterWe have done everything we possibly could. We worked as hard as we could. We made proposal after proposal. We are discouraged but not defeated.