§ 10. Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he is satisfied that diplomatic bags are not being used to import arms into the United Kingdom illegally; and if he will make a statement.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. John Tomlinson)The Vienna convention on diplomatic relations, to which the United Kingdom is a party, provides that diplomatic bags shall not be opened or detained. My right hon. Friend would, of course, take the gravest possible view were it to be shown that diplomatic privilege was being abused in order to import into this country weapons for illegal purposes.
§ Mr. DalyellSince the careful nature of the reply indicates that in the opinion of the Government it seems all too probable that diplomatic bags are used for 1544 precisely this purpose, should not protocol give way to screening? Could not requests be made, in the circumstances, for a screening operation for diplomatic bags, in view of the probability, in the light of what has been said, that arms are indeed imported in diplomatic bags?
§ Mr. TomlinsonI think that my hon. Friend is reading too much into the reply that I gave when he drew the conclusions that he did. His proposals for screening would not be consistent with the Vienna convention.
§ Mr. Ian LloydIs not the bacillus of defeatism and national self-denigration, which, unlike Lenin, does not even need a railway carriage, much more dangerous than any arms that might be brought into Britain in diplomatic bags?