§ 34. Mr. Molloyasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will now take all necessary measures to seek to obtain admission to the United Nations of the People's Republic of China.
§ Mr. William RodgersMy right hon. Friend the Minister of State said on 25th April that we shall continue to work for the seating of China in the United Nations. I hope that China's own actions will not have made this task more difficult.—[Vol. 745, c. 269.] [Interruption.]
§ Mr. MolloyIs my hon. Friend aware that time is running out—[Laughter.] Yes, it is; I should have thought that the fright the world had last week showed that.—[Interruption.] Does my hon. Friend accept that the evil situation still extant in Vietnam has grave dangers of escalation and it would, therefore, be sensible for our Government now to give a lead in recognising reality and acknowledging that the Republic of China exists and should take its seat in all responsible councils of the world?
§ Mr. RodgersWe have acknowledged for a long time that it exists, and, as I said in my original Answer, we shall continue to do all we can to make sure that China is seated at the United Nations. However, it is only right for me to add that, if we have obligations in this respect, China has obligations to us, particularly to our diplomats and others who have been put in an intolerable situation in the past few weeks.
§ Mr. G. CampbellHave the Government any grounds for assuming that the Chinese Government would accept a place at the United Nations if it were now offered, especially if the Nationalist Government were still to remain there?
§ Mr. RodgersClearly, there are problems here, and we cannot anticipate the attitude which China might adopt; but this should not affect our general policy on the main issue.