§ Q6. Mr. Goodhewasked the Prime Minister what plans he has to pay an official visit to South-East Asia.
§ The Prime MinisterI have no plans to visit South-East Asia in the immediate future. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence is at present visiting certain countries in the region on his way back from the Five Power Conference on Defence Matters in Canberra.
§ Mr. GoodhewDoes the Prime Minister not think it necessary to go out there and clarify the ambiguous impression which has been given by his right hon. Friend and Lord Shepherd? The Secretary of State for Defence has told a Press conference at S.E.A.T.O. headquarters that no British forces will be available for S.E.A.T.O. contingency plans after 1971, whereas the noble Lord, only a month ago, told S.E.A.T.O.—
§ Mr. Goodhew—that Britain would maintain the capacity to send a significant force to the Far East after our withdrawal from Malaysia and Singapore. Who is correct?
§ The Prime MinisterAs with the situation a little further to the west, in the Persian Gulf, the confusion exists only in the minds of hon. and right hon. Gentlemen opposite.
§ Mr. DalyellOn the subject of Press conferences, has the Prime Minister noticed that at various venues, from Sydney Airport to Singapore, the Leader of the Opposition has been scattering around some extremely expensive promises—right round South-East Asia? As the Leader of a party which says it will reduce taxation, ought not the right hon. Gentleman to do some cost calculations?
§ The Prime MinisterThe fact that these promises are totally incompatible with the promises of hon. and right hon. Gentlemen opposite to reduce expenditure and taxation is not relevant, because they will not be there to carry them out.
§ Mr. HeathIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the statement of the Secretary of State to the Press in Canberra that he is now changing the direction of Government policy and that forces of all three arms are in future to be in South-East Asia, Malaysia and Singapore exercising there almost continuously over the years to come, is a very welcome change of policy by the Government? May I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he does not think that he is now getting the worst of all worlds? He has convinced South-East Asia that he is abandoning them and at the same time his Secretary of State is to keep forces there almost continuously but the forces will have no stockpile of arms and take no part in the command structure.
§ The Prime MinisterWhat my right hon. Friend said in his statement in Canberra is entirely in accordance with what he said in the defence debate following our announcement. There is all the difference in the world between having a training responsibility and an automatic commitment to be in the area for the purpose of taking part in military operations. When the right hon. Gentleman takes a little time off to study the financial implications of maintaining a stockpile of arms and all the military units necessary to protect that stockpile and the arms that will be required, he will find that the cost estimates my right hon. Friend made of his own proposals are intolerable.