HC Deb 27 April 1965 vol 711 cc217-21
Q1. Mr. Blaker

asked the Prime Minister if he will make a statement on his recent visit to the United States of America.

Q3. Mr. Jackson

asked the Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the talks that he had with President Johnson during his recent visit to the United States of America.

Q4. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Prime Minister if he discussed with the President of the United States of America the desirability of establishing a World Food Bank; and whether he will make a statement.

Q8. Mr. Gower

asked the Prime Minister if he will make a statement about his recent visit to North America.

Q9. Mr. McNair-Wilson

asked the Prime Minister what discussions he had with President Johnson on his recent visit to the United States of America regarding the policy of the United States Government on the strengthening of sterling.

Q17. Mr. Heffer

asked the Prime Minister what was the outcome of his discussions with President Johnson on the subject of Vietnam during his recent visit to the United States.

The Prime Minister (Mr. Harold Wilson)

The main purpose of my recent visit to the United States of America was to address the Economic Club in New York. While I was in the United States, I was glad to have the opportunity to have talks with the Secretary-General of the United Nations and with President Johnson on a number of subjects of common interest.

Mr. Blaker

Is the Prime Minister aware that President Johnson has recently announced greatly increased American support for the Mekong River development project as a means of encouraging peace and economic development in South-East Asia? Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether he discussed with President Johnson the possibility of Britain taking part in this important scheme, and, if so, can he give the House any details?

The Prime Minister

This proposal for a big development scheme in the Mekong Valley was included in the speech made by President Johnson in Baltimore just before my visit. I therefore had the opportunity of long discussions with him on this question. Britain has been concerned in some of the technical examination, and I have said that we intend to co-operate to the fullest extent of our powers in this development.

Mr. Jackson

I congratulate the Prime Minister on the great success of his visit, and I am sure that that is endorsed by all hon. Members on this side of the House. May I ask my right hon. Friend whether, despite certain remarks made in Washington, he will continue to pursue an individual initiative with regard to the Far-Eastern crisis?

Secondly, will my right hon. Friend assure the House that this is a better approach than the slavish acquiescence of the Tory Opposition to the Washington line?

The Prime Minister

We discussed a number of initiatives, and had fruitful discussions, and I think that we have seen some of the results of those discussions. It never has been the policy of the Government to embark on slavish acquiescence in the views of the party opposite.

Mr. Frank Allaun

As the escalation of the war seems to be in the direction of bombing Hanoi, Peking, and industrial centres, may I ask my right hon. Friend whether he told the President in advance that this country would dissociate itself from any such step?

The Prime Minister

There was never any discussion of the possibility of bombing Hanoi, Peking, or any other such place.

Mr. William Hamilton

In view of my right hon. Friend's long-known recognition of the danger of world poverty, may I ask whether he can give an undertaking that he will lose no opportunity of discussing this problem and the institution of a World Food Bank with all world leaders at every opportunity?

The Prime Minister

The question of the world food scheme is a matter for F.A.O., with which my right hon. Friend the Minister for Overseas Development is concerned. When, a year or two ago, I reopened the proposal of some years ago for a World Food Board, it was in the context of the possibility of large agricultural surpluses as a result of high agricultural prices in the Common Market and elsewhere. I am sure the House would agree that if there is to be a development of surpluses through agricultural protection there is everything to be said for channelling those surpluses to hungry nations.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

The right hon. Gentleman will remember that my right hon. Friend the Member for Barnet (Mr. Maudling) put forward certain proposals for easing the problem of international liquidity. Was the right hon. Gentleman able to take these any further in his talks with the President?

The Prime Minister

There have been a number of proposals for international liquidity. I think that when the Labour Party were on that side of the House we put forward some rather fuller proposals than those of the right hon. Member for Barnet (Mr. Maudling). Certainly this was discussed fully during my visit, not only with the President, but with the new Secretary to the Treasury, and our various views on this were compared. I know the disappointments that there have been in the past in this matter, but the prospects now, in relation to both the American and the French scene, are better for a discussion of international liquidity. In Washington I said that we will make less progress if we all put forward proposals with names to them, or with national names. It is far better for something to emerge from international discussions without anyone taking pride in the authorship of any particular scheme.

Mr. Gower

Can the Prime Minister explain the remarks that he made during his visit to North America, and particularly New York, when he explained the measures taken by the Government to promote a new sense of drive and urgency, and technological advance and invention? Does he appreciate that whatever the Economic Club of New York thought of it, to many people in this country it will seem like an Alice-in-Wonderland description of legislation by this Government?

The Prime Minister

I am sure that the hon. Member will realise that the Economic Club of New York, consisting of Wall St. bankers and industrialists, is a rather tougher and less impressionable audience, even than some of those that the hon. Member may address from time to time. So far as that audience was concerned, so far as a large part of British industry is concerned, and so far as everyone except those who have political advantage to seek in denying what we are doing is concerned, it is accepted.

Mr. Biggs-Davison

Did the Prime Minister explain to the Economic Club or to anyone else over there how he was going to "knock hell" out of the American aircraft industry?

The Prime Minister

What I explained to them—I did not go out of my way to draw attention to the last 13 years—was that when we have got some sense of urgency in the innovations in our civil industry, and when we have deployed some of our wasted resources from defence white elephants into civil electronics and engineering, we will knock hell out of them.

Mr. Maudling

Did not the Prime Minister call attention, quite rightly, to the enormous reserves supporting sterling that have been amassed in the last 13 years?

The Prime Minister

The right hon. Gentleman will be aware of the figures. The increase over the past 13 years, as a proportion of the total, is very small. The right hon. Gentleman can have the figures if he wants them.