§ 7. Mr. Molloyasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement of the implication for NATO of the reopening of the Suez Canal.
§ Mr. MasonI would refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Esher (Mr. Mather) on 24th June.—[Vol. 894, c. 212.]
§ Mr. MolloyDoes not my right hon. Friend agree that the opening of the Suez Canal means that the Royal Navy can operate east of the Cape without Simonstown?
§ Mr. MasonYes, this is pointedly so. But my right hon. Friend the Minister of State has tried to indicate in the past that with or without the Suez Canal we can operate east of the Cape and that we have many major ports which we can use on a customer basis if we request them—especially Karachi, Colombo, Singapore and minor ones at Mauritius and Mombasa.
§ Mr. BuckDoes not the opening of the Suez Canal make nonsense of the NATO geographical guidelines? Will the right hon. Gentleman and the Prime Minister initiate a happening in NATO to make sure that this matter is aired, bearing in mind that he will find that quite a lot of preliminary work was done on this matter by his predecessors in NATO circles?
§ Mr. MasonThe hon. and learned Gentleman is merely reminding the House of what it knows already. The Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic embarked upon a study of the protection of shipping during war time east of the Cape in 1972.