HL Deb 24 July 1962 vol 242 cc935-6

2.41 p.m.

LORD KENNET

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 the Carriers "Victorious" and "Centaur" were carrying nuclear bombs when they sailed into the Persian Gulf in support of the Kuwait operation.]

LORD CARRINGTON

My Lords, the noble Lord asked me this very Question in his speech during the Navy Estimates' debate on July 11. I said then, and I can but repeat it, that it is the kind of question which is never answered.

LORD KENNET

My Lords, does the First Lord accept that if the threatened country in such a case as this does not know whether carriers have nuclear bombs on board, it must assume that they have and, to that extent, may be the more tempted to call upon another country to introduce nuclear weapons into the theatre to redress the balance?

LORD CARRINGTON

No, my Lords. I should have thought that the Question which the noble Lord asked me, which was about the Kuwait operation, showed not only that the British forces were very successful in preventing a war but that both Her Majesty's ships "Centaur" and "Victorious" took a notable part in that.

LORD KENNET

My Lords, the First Lord, I am sure, appreciates that I do not dispute this at all. It is a question of fact.

BARONESS SUMMERSKILL

My Lords, could I ask the noble Lord whether it is not a fact that Questioners in another place have been assured, time after time, by the Government that nuclear power would not be used without the House being informed? Therefore, how can it be said that this matter of policy cannot be discussed?

LORD CARRINGTON

My Lords, if the noble Lady will look at the Question the noble Lord has put on the Order Paper, I think she will see it is really rather different from the supplementary that she has raised.