NASSAU AGREEMENT (Hansard, 7 April 1970)

§ Q2. Mr. Blaker
asked the Prime Minister which clauses of the Nassau Agreement, Command Paper No. 1915, he informed President Johnson he reserved the right to renegotiate without any time limit.

§ The Prime Minister
As I made clear in reply to supplementary questions by the noble Lord the Member for Hertford (Lord Balniel) and my hon. Friend the Member for Dunbartonshire, West (Mr. Steele) on 19th May, 1966, the issue is that of independent use of the deterrent. —[Vol. 728, c. 1547-8.]

§ Mr. Blaker
Is not the central fact about the nuclear deterrent that the Government have reversed their previous policy? Is it really too difficult for the Prime Minister to say so?

§ The Prime Minister
The Government have not in any way reversed their previous policy—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] I dealt with this question very fully as early as December, 1964, on the question of the so-called deterrent. In the Questions to which I referred and which the hon. Gentleman will no doubt study, he will see that the situation then was what it is now.

§ Mr. Hugh Jenkins
As my right hon. Friend has not changed his policy in this matter, will he say when he expects to open discussions with the President as to precisely when renegotiation shall take place?

§ The Prime Minister
I made clear in the Answer which I have quoted that this was a matter of when there was a truly collective deterrent in N.A.T.O. That will be the time for the negotiations.

§ Sir Alec Douglas-Home
If the situation was the same then as it is now, and is now as it was then, is it not a fact that we can resume the use of our Polaris submarines if there were a case of dire national emergency and we wished to do so?

§ The Prime Minister
The right hon. Gentleman was away when that was dealt with by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence, in a statement which was half-quoted by the Leader of the Opposition, although he failed to quote the rest of the sentence and therefore gave a misleading impression. It has been very fully dealt with by my right hon. Friend and the right hon. Gentleman can study what he said.