§ Q1. Viscount Lambtonasked the Prime Minister whether he will appoint a Minister of Armaments to supervise the sale of arms abroad.
§ The Prime Minister (Mr. Harold Wilson)No, Sir.
§ Viscount LambtonBut will not the Prime Minister agree that undiverted attention should be given to this matter to make certain that, directly or indirectly, arms do not reach countries with interests at variance with our own?
§ The Prime MinisterThe noble Lord's objective is right, but I draw a sharp distinction between the private traffic in arms, which has had some dangerous consequences in recent years, and the duties of the newly appointed arms salesman whose job is to see that, within already agreed programmes, for example, between allies within N.A.T.O., British products have a fair crack of the whip instead of the excessively pushed American arms sales which have been driving us out of markets we ought to have.