§ 21. Mr. James Johnsonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a further statement regarding the Iceland fisheries dispute.
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeNaval protection is working well, provided trawlers stay reasonably close together. But we have no wish to keep the Navy there for a moment longer than it is necessary; and are ready to withdraw it at any time if we can be confident that harassing will cease.
§ Mr. JohnsonIs the right hon. Gentleman aware how thankful the fishing community, particularly their womenfolk, are about the continuing lull, which is not unconnected in their minds with the advent of the Navy? Will he say more about the initiative taken by Dr. Joseph Luns, the Secretary-General of NATO, particularly following the latest move of the Icelanders to ask the Americans to terminate the Keflavik base? Is it correct that Dr. Luns asked that the Navy should leave pending further negotiations? Will the right hon. Gentleman give a firm assurance that it will not leave those waters until the Icelanders give a guarantee to cease harassment of our men?
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeDr. Luns has not pressed us to take any action that we would not wish to take. We look upon the American base as an entirely separate matter from the fisheries question, not connected with it at all. Unless the Icelanders can agree to stop harassing, I do not see how we can withdraw the Navy.
§ Sir T. BeamishWill my right hon. Friend confirm that protocol 6 of Iceland's trade agreement with the European Community, which covers her exports of fish, will not become operative on 1st July, when it was due to become 1478 operative, and that it will have to wait until Iceland complies with her international obligations?
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeI can confirm that.
§ Mr. CallaghanIs it not clear that it would be very one-sided to ask for the withdrawal of naval protection until harassment ceased, but that it is not likely to cease until we have some kind of negotiated agreement? Is the right hon. Gentleman ready to use the offices of Dr. Joseph Luns as an intermediary to try to get some negotiations going? Do not we need a temporary settlement until the Law of the Sea Conference next year, which, if advance reports are to be believed, is likely to alter the whole basis of legality in those waters? Therefore, should we not be getting ourselves into a position where we can negotiate against the changes that are likely to take place?
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeThe right hon. Gentleman has stated the dilemma very well. We are quite willing for Dr. Luns to be an intermediary to get us into a negotiation, and he is trying to help in that direction. But I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will not forget that the waters in question are international, and that we went to the highest United Nations organisation—the International Court—to get a judgment on what we should do between now and the time when the Law of the Sea Conference begins, and it gave us a judgment. We not only acted upon it but went 25,000 tons lower than the figure that court awarded. We could hardly have done more.
§ Mr. CallaghanI do not think that anyone disagrees with that, but, because this is an intractable problem, would the Foreign Secretary be willing, for example, to have Dr. Luns sitting in on discussions that might be resumed between Her Majesty's Government and the Icelandic Government to get us both out of the present situation?
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeIf that would help, it would be agreeable, but Dr. Luns and the Norwegian Foreign Minister have offered to mediate in that way and the offers have been rejected by the Icelandic Government. When I arrive in Copenhagen tomorrow I shall have to see 1479 whether we can devise any conciliatory machinery.
§ Mr. Russell JohnstonDoes the right hon. Gentleman agree that, while everything he said about our position is quite true, it is equally true that the fact that many more countries—Canada, for example—are talking about a territorial limit extension of 100 miles is a factor in the persistence of the Icelandic attitude? In view of that, can the right hon. Gentleman say anything about how far ahead we are in preparing a British attitude on territorial limits for the Chilean conference to which the right hon. Member for Cardiff, South-East (Mr. Callaghan) referred?
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeI do not think that we want to lay down a position before the International Conference on the Law of the Sea assembles. I do not think that it would be a good thing to do. The Icelanders have fallen into that trap. It will be better to go to the conference with fairly open minds and negotiate something reasonable.