HC Deb 05 May 1964 vol 694 cc1112-3
Q6. Mr. Warbey

asked the Prime Minister if he will propose to President Johnson, Mr. Khrushchev, Mr. Chou-en-Lai, General de Gaulle and the heads of other Governments represented at the 1954 Geneva Conference a re-call conference at summit level to discuss measures to achieve the pacification and neutralisation of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam under United Nations guarantee.

The Prime Minister

My right hon. Friend has already encountered great difficulties in his efforts to secure the agreement of all the Governments concerned to a conference on Cambodia, and I think a proposal to add Laos and Vietnam to the agenda would greatly increase the difficulties.

Mr. Warbey

Does not the Prime Minister yet appreciate that there can be no permanent peace and stability in Laos and Cambodia until there is peace and stability in Vietnam? As President Ho Chi-Minh has recently reaffirmed his willingness to agree to a settlement of the Vietnamese question on the basis of the Geneva Agreements, including neutralisation and the progressive reunification of the country, what is now the obstacle to the holding of a peace conference in order to bring peace to that war-distressed country?

The Prime Minister

I am only too anxious that there should be peace in South-East Asia. I took some part in securing the Laos agreement. The next thing to do is to try to meet the wish of Prince Sihanouk for a conference on Cambodia. There is little chance of such a conference on South Vietnam being effective so long as there is Communist infiltration from Hanoi.

Mr. Warbey

Has not the Prime Minister taken note of the fact that President Ho Chi-Minh, whom he blames as being responsible for the situation, has reaffirmed his readiness to agree to a peace settlement in Vietnam, provided that it is on the basis of the Geneva Agreements which provided for the neutralisation of the whole area? What more does the right hon. Gentleman want?

The Prime Minister

It is not on the basis of the Geneva Agreements for North Vietnam to be pouring infiltrators and subverters into the south of the country.

Mr. Harold Davies

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that even in the United States of America taxpayers and some progressive senators are now aware that a policy of neutralisation in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the rest of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula would be progressive? Would he, therefore, use his powerful influence once again to endeavour to follow the lines of the Eden Conference at Geneva in 1954, for which the world was then truly grateful?

The Prime Minister

The objective of both sides of the House is probably the same—the pacification of the area. However, I do not think that the method proposed by the hon. Gentleman is the right one now.