PRIME MINISTER AND PRESIDENT JOHNSON (TALKS) (Hansard, 15 December 1964)

§ Q2. Mr. Wall
asked the Prime Minister if he will make a statement about his talks with President Johnson.

§ Q6. Mr. Owen
asked the Prime Minister if he will make a statement on his recent talks with the Prime Minister of Canada.

§ Q7. Mr. Bence
asked the Prime Minister if he will make a statement on his talks with President Johnson about British Guiana.

§ Q13. Brigadier Clarke
asked the Prime Minister what subjects he discussed with the President of the United States; and if he will make a statement.

§ 023. Mr. Biggs-Davison
asked the Prime Minister whether he will give an assurance that no decision was made at Washington which would prevent the deployment outside Europe of British nuclear forces.

§ Q27. Mr. Dempsey
asked the Prime Minister if he will make a statement on his recent talks with President Johnson, in connection with future summit meetings between the East and the West, with a view to removing tension.

§ The Prime Minister
I will arrange to circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT the Joint Agreed Communiqué published after my talks in Washington on 7th and 8th December with President Johnson.
If I catch your eye, Mr. Speaker, I hope to make a full statement in the course of the debate we are to have tomorrow and Thursday.

§ Mr. Wall
Will the Prime Minister today answer two specific questions [HON. MEMBERS: "No."]—whether or not agreement was reached to give up sovereignty over the British nuclear deterrent and whether or not agreement was reached for British participation in an allied surface force armed with nuclear weapons?

§ The Prime Minister
I hope that the hon. Gentleman will await the very full statement that I hope to make tomorrow.

§ Sir Alec Douglas-Home
Is the Prime Minister aware that it would have been 205 a great convenience to the House if he had been able to circulate to the House, or make, a statement about his talks in Washington so that we could have had it—[HON. MEMBERS: "Did you?"]—in our hands before the debate? That would have helped us a great deal. As the Foreign Secretary has apparently circulated some document to the N.A.T.O. Council, may I ask why it was not circulated to Parliament?

§ The Prime Minister
The right hon Gentleman was, I think, Foreign Secretary at the time of the Nassau Conference. He was at the Conference. He will perhaps recall that the then Prime Minister answering Questions on 22nd January, 1963, said that he could not make any statement on those talks on the ground that there was to be a debate, riot one day later, but eight days later.

§ Sir Alec Douglas-Home
We must await the detailed statement which no doubt the Prime Minister will make in the debate. May I ask how it is that a circular, apparently containing the proposals which he made to President Johnson, has been circulated already to N.A.T.O. but we have seen no sign of it?

§ The Prime Minister
The right hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that when he has been engaged in international negotiations he has put forward a lot of suggestions on behalf of his Government before he made any statement in this House. I can tell him that, unlike the practice which he followed, I intend tomorrow to make a much fuller statement to the House than has been made to any of our colleagues in N.A.T.O.