HL Deb 16 October 1973 vol 345 cc153-5

2.45 p.m.

LORD JANNER

My 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 they will make a Statement on the present position in respect of measures taken and proposed to be taken nationally and internationally in regard to the hijacking of planes.

THE MINISTER OF STATE, FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE)

My Lords, the failure of the recent Conference of the International Civil Aviation Organisation in Rome has been a great disappointment. However, the passing of the Protection of Aircraft Act has enabled us to make arrangements to ratify the Montreal Convention against sabotage.

LORD JANNER

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for the reply and for the action that was taken at the Rome Convention. When the text was originally produced by our delegation there Article 80, which called upon every State to take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of civil aviation, was included. May I ask why, in spite of this, that Article was withdrawn by us? May I ask further why, in the circumstances, we did not support the motion that was put forward by the South American delegation in similar terms?

BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE

My Lords, we withdrew our support for Article No. 80, because we believed that if we had not done so the main proposal would have been deferred, and that was very important to us. We voted against the South American proposal because we were quite certain that it would not get the two-thirds majority.

LORD .TANNER

My Lords, surely the noble Baroness realises that on a question of principle of this sort we should have stuck to our guns? Would she say what proposals she is putting forward to the Montreal Convention in relation to the question of refusing air facilities to those nations who harbour the criminals, and who indeed have now shown what they are doing in regard to the attack on Israel?

BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE

My Lords, as I said, the Montreal Convention we can now ratify, and Orders in Council will shortly come before this House for consideration. We had a proposal, which was co-sponsored with the Swiss, that access to air space should be denied to the aircraft of States which failed to deal with hijackers. I regret to say that this was supported by less than half of those present. The rest of the proposal that we put forward was that ICAO should investigate such matters without imposing sanctions, and this failed by only two votes to get the two-thirds majority which it needed.

LORD HARVEY OF PRESTBURY

My Lords, does my noble friend not agree that as Governments have failed to reach any measure of agreement for the last two or three years, this matter should be left to the World Federation of Airline Pilots?

BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE

My Lords, I notice that they have mot recently, but I hope that they will not take measures into their own hands, because it is only through international agreement, and through our own Protection of Aircraft Act and by ratifying the Hague and the Montreal Conventions, that we can, as an international community, achieve something worth while.

LORD JANNER

My Lords, in view of the fact that the pilots themselves are perhaps the persons most immediately concerned with the matter, if they take it into their own hands to prevent those who are harbouring criminals from doing so by refusing air facilities, is not the noble Baroness prepared to support them in an action of that sort?

BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE

My Lords, although it is slow, I think that some progress is being made. I think that the recent examples of the unwillingness of many countries to receive the political hijacker, and the fact that our proposals in Rome attracted considerable support from the Arab States, are good things.

THE EARL OF SELKIRK

My Lords, is the noble Baroness implying that the Montreal Convention has now received an adequate number of signatures?

BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE

No, my Lords, it has not. That is really the problem, because of course it is international agreement and acceptance that we are trying to achieve.