§ 44. Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about vehicles available for relief and rescue operations in Ethiopia.
§ 48. Mr. Formanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assistance the Government are providing for transport of relief supplies within Ethiopia.
§ Mr. RaisonAbout 3,000 long and short haul trucks are needed in all. Of these, about 1,300 are currently deployed, including 350 recently made available by the Ethiopians. A further 450 trucks pledged by donors should arrive soon and we hoped that the Ethiopians will provide more. We shall now provide further assistance of £750,000 for transport needs in Ethiopia, including semi-trailers and truck hire costs. In addition, and provided it can operate effectively during the rains, we have decided to extend the British airlift until 30 September. It will then be withdrawn after 11 months' magnificent work.
§ Mr. ChapmanI welcome the latter part of my right hon. Friend's statement, but does he agree that it is an absolute disgrace that the Ethiopian Government have failed to carry out the commitment that they gave some months ago—which was both practicable and reasonable — to provide 4,000 vehicles for the much needed distribution of aid in parts of Ethiopia? Has my right hon. Friend made any estimate of the additional suffering caused to the Ethiopian people by that oppressive non-commitment of their Government?
§ Mr. RaisonI cannot give any such estimate, but for some months we and other Western donors have been pressing the Ethiopians to fulfil their earlier promises to provide vehicles. They have at last undertaken to deploy military vehicles and all other available transport to increase the daily take-off from the port of Assab from 1,200 tonnes to 4,000 tonnes a day to clear congestion there. I hope that that exercise will be carried out successfully.
§ Mr. FormanI agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnett (Mr. Chapman). Do the 350 vehicles that the Ethiopians have already made available represent a significant part of total transport needs? If not, will my right hon. Friend put on record the number of vehicles that the Ethiopians could use if they were minded to do so?
§ Mr. RaisonThe 350 vehicles are a valuable and significant contribution. I believe that the Ethopians have about 4,000 military trucks. The more trucks that are made available, the sooner the task of transporting food across the country will be able to proceed.
§ Mr. MaclennanWhy has the Minister announced the proposal to discontinue our valuable transport service after 11 months? Does he believe that the service is complete?
§ Mr. RaisonI believe that by the end of September there should be sufficient road transport available. It already accounts for 90 per cent. of the distribution of food and other relief supplies. Moreover, the roads should be usable after the rainy season.