§ 2. Mr. Sproatasked the Lord Privy Seal if he will make a statement on the latest progress of the Madrid review conference.
§ Mr. HurdIt has been our strong hope that the outstanding issues of human rights and military security could be resolved before the end of July. The meeting in Madrid has now reached a critical phase in the negotiations on a mandate for the conference on disarmament in Europe. If this issue can be resolved it should open the way to agreement on the substantial and balanced final document which we are seeking.
§ Mr. SproatIs it not a fact that while the Madrid talks have been dragging on during the past months the Soviet authorities have continued to jam broadcasts to the Soviet Union by the BBC and by other Western countries, that they have still not made Western newspapers and magazines available in the Soviet Union, as they promised to do, and that they are cracking down even more ruthlessly on their own dissidents and cutting back even more drastically on would-be emigrants? What new proposals do the Government and their allies have to make the Soviet Union stick more closely in future to the pledges that it made freely at Helsinki?
§ Mr. HurdMy hon. Friend is right in saying that the Soviet record on implementation is extremely disappointing. That is why we spent so much time at the Madrid conference in reviewing and in pointing up the facts to which my hon. Friend has drawn attention. The question is whether it is better to forgo the whole process because it has been disappointing, or—as we are trying to do—to try to put together a new and balanced document which will enable us to keep up the pressure.