DALAI LAMA'S VISIT (Hansard, 6 November 1973)

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

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
My Lords, the Dalai Lama's visit to this country was private and Her Majesty's Government were not involved.

VISCOUNT LONG
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for her kind Answer. Are not the Government aware that the word "polite" in this instance applies to political courtesy? Furthermore, is it not a fact that the Government could not recognise the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet because he was in exile and therefore of no use to the Government? Or was it because there were other pressures from other sources that forbade the recognition of the Dalai Lama?

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
My Lords, as I said in my reply, this was a private visit. In any case, it would not be appropriate for Her Majesty's Government to offer official entertainment to a person in exile from a country with which we maintain diplomatic relations. In reply to the other question asked by the noble Lord, on September 4, the Chinese Embassy expressed the hope that the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to visit the United Kingdom. But we maintained that the visit was private and that it is our normal practice to grant visas for such visits.

§ LORD SHACKLETON
My Lords, while acknowledging the rightness of the Government's decision to allow the Dalai Lama to visit this country, is is not a fact that they refused to meet him, even unofficially, or to have any contact with him at all? Surely, someone of such significance, spiritually or otherwise, was entitled to be met by a member of the Government, even on an unofficial basis. Is it true that no member of the Government was prepared to meet him?

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
My Lords, I said before 238 that this was a private visit. It would not have been appropriate for Ministers officially to receive the Dalai Lama.

§ LORD HALE
My Lords, as there have been a number of complaints recently about Government hospitality or courtesy, can the noble Baroness tell us whether there exists in the Foreign Office a provisional list which provides that one national leader or ex-national leader shall he met by the Prime Minister at the airport, and another shall he met by a P.P.S. at the hotel; whether the hotels are gradated, and what countries have to retire to their pre-1967 or other known frontiers? The Dalai Lama was expelled from his country by military action. Would it not have been well to have provided some courtesy to the Dalai Lama, and to have given him information about the arrival of the Chinese delegation? Are any special marks given to countries which produce oil, or to those who have the possibility of reincarnation?

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
My Lords, where an official visitor comes officially to this country, usually he is met officially at the airport, or wherever it happens to be.
In answer to what the noble Lord said about the Chinese, I understand that a private function was held by the Chinese in the hotel where the Dalai Lama was staying but that there was no contact with the Dalai Lama's party.

§ THE EARL OF ONSLOW
My Lords, can the noble Baroness say whether a Government Minister has ever met an exiled Head of State or head of a district on a private visit?

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
My Lords, the only parallel that I can think of is King Constantine who visits this country as a private individual and is not received by a Minister.

§ LORD HOY
My Lords, is it not a fact that the Foreign Office was so ill-informed that the delegation from China was put into the same hotel as the Dalai Lama?

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
My Lords, the point is that they did not meet and there was no incident.

LORD BELHAVEN AND STENTON
My Lords, do I understand my noble friend to say that the Chinese Embassy was consulted over the visit of the Dalai Lama of Tibet? Would not my noble friend agree that the brutal Chinese occupation of Tibet is one of the worst things that have happened in the world since the German occupation of Poland? Further, is she not aware that the Chinese Government was convicted of genocide in Tibet by no less a body than the International Committee of Jurists, and is that not reason enough for Her Majesty's Government to welcome with courtesy a person of the eminence of the Dalai Lama?

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
My Lords, the Chinese Embassy were not consulted on the visit. As I explained, they expresed the hope that perhaps the Dalai Lama should not come. We said that it was our normal practice to grant visas for such visits. So far as the status of Tibet is concerned, we have, over a long period, recognised Chinese suzerainty over Tibet. This has been on the understanding that Tibet is regarded as autonomous. It was proclaimed an autonomius region in 1965.

LORD BELHAVEN AND STENTON
My Lords, does my noble friend accept the English suzerainty over Sectland?

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
My Lords, that is another question.

§ BARONESS STOCKS
My Lords, since the Dalai Lama has now left England, is there anything that can be done about it anyway?

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
No, my Lords.

§ LORD SHACKLETON
My Lords, would the noble Baroness now admit that in fact the Government made an error of judgment and that there was a failing in courtesy? I know how concerned the noble Viscount, Lord Long, was in trying to find anyone at all to meet him. Perhaps she would look into the matter for the future.

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
My Lords, I cannot accept that. The Dalai Lama was here, as a guest of the Standing Conference 240 of British Organisations for Aid to Refugees, on a private visit.

§ LORD SEGAL
My Lords, may I ask the noble Baroness whether she is aware that the visit of the Dalai Lama on this occasion was not too happily organised, and would the Government be prepared to approach the proper authorities to see that he is given at least due religious recognition in the event of his paying a future visit to this country?

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
My Lords, as I explained in a previous answer, this was a private visit; another organisation was in fact the host on this occasion, and there was nothing, therefore, to involve Her Majesty's Government.

§ LORD SEGAL
My Lords, would the noble Baroness be prepared to express a view about the second part of my question, in the event of a future visit being paid to this country by the Dalai Lama?

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
My Lords, in this life we think only of what is going to happen in the next year.

§ LORD HANKEY
My Lords, is it not a fact that the Dalai Lama was received by the highest Church authorities?

§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE
My Lords, I understand that the Dalai Lama came here to visit religious leaders and Tibetan refugees.