§ 2.25 p.m.
§ LORD COLYTONMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether their attention has been drawn to the Organisation of American States' report recording the constant violation of human rights by the Cuban judiciary and in the Cuban concentration camps, as also the report of the Inter-America Commission on Human Rights, showing that in spite of many complaints no improvement has been made in the matter; how many political prisoners are still being held in Cuban concentration camps without trial; and whether they will instruct Her Majesty's Ambassador in Havana to protest to Dr. Castro against these violations of elementary human rights which have now continued for over six years.]
§ THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (LORD CHALFONT)My Lords, the noble Lord drew Her Majesty's Government's attention to the 36 report issued in May, 1963, by the Commission on Human Rights of the Organisation of American States in a Question on July 26, 1963. The same body issued a further report in June, 1967. Her Majesty's Government are aware of the contents of these and other reports on the workings of the Cuban penal system. Her Majesty's Government deplore and condemn the ill-treatment of political prisoners whether in Cuba or anywhere else. Estimates of the number of political prisoners vary widely. Dr. Castro publicly stated in August, 1965, that they then totalled 20,000. In Her Majesty's Government's view a protest to the Cuban Government on this matter would serve no useful purpose.
§ LORD COLYTONMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for his reply, may I ask him two questions? We constantly hear of demonstrations and protest marches, about the arrest for political reasons, or of detention without trial, of people in many other countries in Europe and elsewhere. Why is it that no one in this country ever seeks to protest against the appalling state of affairs in Cuba, which must be the most brutal dictatorship in the world? Secondly, will Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the facts revealed in this report, consider imposing a total trade ban on Cuba, as is already done by the United States and all the Central and South American countries, except for Mexico, and as was indeed proposed in a somewhat different form by the late Lord Morrison of Lambeth on November 8, 1961? Is this not the only way to bring home to these people the need to behave in a civilised and humane manner?
§ LORD CHALFONTMy Lords, so far as the question of protest is concerned, it is not, of course, for Her Majesty's Government to organise protests against the Cuban Government or any other Government. I take the point of the noble Lord's question, but I have already stated that Her Majesty's Government deplore and condemn this sort of treatment, whether in Cuba or anywhere else.
So far as the second part of the noble Lord's question is concerned, I have already said that I do not believe a protest would serve any useful purpose in this case. I am equally persuaded that trade restrictions of the kind suggested by the 37 noble Lord would have no more than the value of a gesture, and would do nothing to better or to ameliorate the lot of these unfortunate people.
§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYMy Lords, could Her Majesty's Government not contemplate a policy of sanctions which they consider to have been so successful in other parts?