§ 3.56 p.m.
§ LORD WALSTONMy Lords, it may be convenient if, with your Lordships' permission, I intervene at this stage to repeat a Statement which is being made in another place by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs about the results of Mr. Gordon Walker's tour of South-East Asia from April 14 to May 4. This tour had three main purposes. My right honourable friend wanted Mr. Gordon Walker to supplement the reports of our Ambassadors by providing him with a single, comprehensive account of the repercussions in South-East Asia of the Vietnam conflict. The Foreign Secretary also wanted him to explain, as his personal representative, British views to South-East Asian Governments and to explore further with them the prospects for a negotiated settlement.
Because the value to Her Majesty's Government of Mr. Gordon Walker's report depended on the frankness with which he recorded his personal impressions, it is not suitable for publication.
But I do want to say something about the other objectives of this tour. Explaining British policy to foreign Governments and seeking their concurrence is normally the function of our Ambassadors on the spot. But when a particular aspect of British foreign policy has excited as much controversy in Britain itself as our attitude towards Vietnam, it is occasionally useful to supplement the ordinary 194 diplomatic exchanges by a visit from someone more intimately acquainted with the British political scene than any of our Ambassadors abroad are in a position to be.
I know that this aspect was particularly appreciated by many of the distinguished South-East Asian leaders with whom Mr. Gordon Walker had his discussions. I hope, too, that his visit may have helped to answer one complaint frequently reported by our Ambassadors in South-East Asian capitals. This is that, largely because of the workings of our Parliamentary system, so few British political leaders visit that important part of the world.
But Mr. Gordon Walker's main achievement was in persuading certain friendly Governments to withdraw their objections to the proposal for a Conference on Cambodia. As the House will recall, the previous Government's efforts to promote such a conference in 1964 foundered on objections from Thailand and South Vietnam. These at least have now been overcome, thanks in large part to our decision to emphasise the importance we attach to this project by sending a special emissary to visit these and other Governments.
It was a disappointment that the Chinese and North Vietnamese refused to see Mr. Gordon Walker. I also regret that even the Soviet Government are so far only willing to contemplate negotiations on Cambodia rather than on Vietnam. But I earnestly believe that our inability to achieve an immediate and total solution of all the problems of South-East Asia should not deter us from tackling them one by one and trying to advance, step by step, towards that negotiated solution which remains our objective.
§ 3.58 p.m.
§ LORD CARRINGTONMy Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Walston, for repeating this Statement. I would agree with him that it is important that responsible people should make visits of this kind, although there may be few who do it. The noble Lord, Lord Butler, and I myself were in South-East Asia last year; so visits of that kind certainly happen. As a general rule, I think it is better that they should be visits by Ministers who are responsible 195 to Parliament, rather than by people, however distinguished, who are not in Parliament. I do not want to be ungenerous, but I am afraid that the truth is that once it was known that the Chinese and the North Vietnamese refused to see Mr. Gordon Walker, there really was little object in the visit; and I think that was known before he left. I am bound to say that I greatly doubt whether anything has been achieved which could not equally well have been done by our skilled Ambassadors on the spot. In the Statement we are told that the Thai and the South Vietnamese objections to a conference on Cambodia have been overcome. May I ask the noble Lord, Lord Walston, whether the Cambodian objections have been overcome? That seems rather important.
§ LORD WALSTONMy Lords, the answer to that last question is that so far they have not been overcome. We are still waiting with hope, but perhaps not with complete confidence, an answer from the Cambodian Government in which they agree to this conference which they themselves asked for in March and which the Russians, as co-Chairmen, sponsored. We also sponsored it in exactly the same terms. But, at the moment, as I say, we are still awaiting a response from the Cambodian Government.
§ LORD CONESFORDMy Lords, may I ask one question, for enlightenment? I understood from the noble Lord, Lord Walston, that the report of Mr. Gordon Walker would not be suitable for publication, for reasons which I think I appreciate. But will his report be communicated to our Ambassadors concerned?
§ LORD WALSTONMy Lords, certainly all parts of the report which are in any way helpful and useful will be communicated to them.