§ Q1. Mr. Raymond Fletcherasked the Prime Minister if he will now merge the Ministries of Defence and Overseas Development into a Ministry of External Security.
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Roy Jenkins)I have been asked to reply.
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has no plans to do so, although the machinery of government is kept under constant review.
§ Mr. FletcherIs my right hon. Friend aware that this Question stems from a close study of our experience during the Malaysian confrontation in which the Departments mentioned in the Question merged with conspicuous success? In a world in which economic development is as powerful a contribution to security as armed diplomacy, should not this fact be institutionalised?
§ Mr. JenkinsMy right hon. Friend the Prime Minister will take into account what my hon. Friend has said, and the parallel he draws with the Malaysian situation may have some validity. It is important to keep in mind that the primary object of our aid policy is to help developing countries and not to further our external security. Therefore, I am not sure by any means that in all the circumstances such an amalgation would be desirable.
§ Rear-Admiral Morgan-GilesIn Asia is not freedom from fear the corollary to 233 freedom from want? If so, is there not a contradiction in one Ministry withdrawing its efforts from east of Suez while the other tries to build up?
§ Mr. JenkinsI do not think so for a moment. It may be perfectly reasonable for us to cut our military forces to what we can afford and what are reasonable in present world circumstances without contracting out of development aid.
§ Mr. RipponWill the Government consider adopting the suggestion made last week by the right hon. Member for Easington (Mr. Shinwell) and in view, as he said, of the ambiguity of the Government's policy east of Suez publish a White Paper on this subject?
§ Mr. JenkinsI think that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence will be announcing to the House the results of the conference, and no doubt that point can be raised with him and he can consider the matter then.
§ Miss HerbisonWill my right hon. Friend inform the Prime Minister that there would be very grave opposition from both sides of the House to the joining of the Ministries of Defence and Overseas Development, particularly as the work of the Ministry of Overseas Development is, as my right hon. Friend the Chancellor said in reply to the first supplementary question, to give aid to developing countries where it is needed?
§ Mr. JenkinsI have already, as I think my right hon. Friend will recognise, indicated that there seem to me to be certain strong arguments in the direction in which she is pointing. I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister will take fully into account the stress she has laid upon this point.