§ Q7. Mr. Molloyasked the Prime Minister if he will give details of the communications from Mr. Kosygin and President Johnson on further proposals for disarmament, following the agreement on non-proliferation; and what reply he has sent.
§ The Prime MinisterOur views on the Soviet Government's further proposals for disarmament, which we received on 1st July, and on President Johnson's message to the opening Session of the 18-Nation Disarmament Committee on 16th July, were set out in the speeches of my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary and my right hon. Friend the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in the debate in the House on 18th July. I have no further information to give the House today.—[Vol. 768, c. 1679–1805.]
§ Mr. MolloyWill my right hon. Friend maintain the pressure to have continuous conferences to bring about disarmament, which is the only guarantee for the survival of the world? In view of the dangerous situation which now obtains in Europe, would he consider advocating even more strongly the establishment of a peace and security council for Europe?
§ The Prime MinisterWith reference to the continuing conferences which my hon. Friend wants to see, there is the conference, again reconvened, in Geneva of the 18-Nation Disarmament Committee. My hon. Friend will have been delighted to see the very important initiative taken by Her Majesty's Government through my right hon. Friend the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in his proposals concerning bacteriological warfare. With regard to a new security arrangement or security conference for Europe, I have nothing to add to questions I have answered on previous occasions about my talks with Mr. Kosygin.
§ Sir A. V. HarveyWill the Prime Minister convey to Mr. Kosygin that it would be helpful to world disarmament if Soviet Russia took its forces out of Czechoslovakia?
§ The Prime MinisterI have nothing to add to what my right hon. Friend said to the House in the debate on foreign affairs last Thursday. But we are, of course, in close touch with Mr. Kosygin on questions of disarmament. We very much welcome the initiative that he took on the day the non-proliferation treaty was signed, and equally, of course, the initiative by President Johnson. We look forward with some hope to the discussions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the light of those two new initiatives.
§ Mr. PagetDoes my right hon. Friend think that disarmament is advanced by supplying arms to Nigeria and to Zambia, particularly in the latter case, when neither we nor anybody else is in a position to do anything to help Zambia if she meets the consequences of using those arms?
§ The Prime MinisterThe question of Nigeria was fully debated yesterday, not for the first time in this House, and that matter was dealt with. As to Zambia, as is made clear in an Answer of mine to a later Question, we made it clear to President Kaunda when he raised the defence question with us that we are prepared to have joint talks with the Zam-bian Government about the equipment which they need. We have made it clear that there is no embargo on defensive arms to Zambia.
§ Mr. Biggs-DavisonIs the Prime Minister aware that many of us think that what the Foreign Secretary said in the foreign affairs debate about the situation in Czechoslovakia was not up to the importance of these events? Is it not time, so many years after the Yalta partition of Europe, that the peoples of Europe were enabled to unite in peace and freedom?
§ The Prime MinisterI have not anything to add to what my right hon. Friend said on this very important, difficult and delicate issue in his speech last week. I am sorry that the hon. Member does not think that my right hon. Friend's speech measured up to the importance of the subject, but from his own standards of what measures up to the importance of the subject I am, perhaps, rather relieved.