HL Deb 04 July 1956 vol 198 c416

2.43 p.m.

LORD VANSITTART

My Lords, I beg to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will inquire of Mr. Shepilov to whom precisely he was referring when, in reaching "complete unity of opinion" with Colonel Nasser, he denounced "those dark imperialist forces which try to poison relations between peoples."]

THE MARQUESS OF READING

My Lords, this is a less full Answer than the previous one. Her Majesty's Government do not consider that an inquiry addressed to the Soviet Government on this point would serve any useful purpose.

LORD VANSITTART

My Lords, this time I cannot profess to be quite as satisfied with the Answer as in the case of the previous one. The reason I ask this Question is that I imagine that the Foreign Office and, indeed, everybody else, might possibly think it a bad day's work if we let the "new boy" get away with this pernicious balderdash.