§ LORD BROCKWAYMy 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, in view of the expanded use of underground tests by the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., and the Chinese and French overground tests, they will propose the holding of an international conference to consider the immediate banning of all nuclear tests and a target date for outlawing nuclear weapons with the destruction of existing stocks.
§ THE MINISTER OF STATE, FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE)My Lords, international machinery already exists at the Committee for the Conference on Disarmament at Geneva for the negotiation of arms control agreements of tile kind which the noble Lord has proposed. I do not believe that any useful purpose would be served by a move to duplicate this machinery at the present time.
§ LORD BROCKWAYYes, my Lords, but is not that Conference in 1975? Is it not very desirable that some initiative should be taken before then? Does the noble Baroness remember the undertaking given in the Non-Proliferation Treaty to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date, and to nuclear disarmament? What has been done to carry out that pledge?
§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIEMy Lords, I am sure that 284 the noble Lord knows very well that we are discussing an extremely complex subject. The negotiations at Geneva, which I agree have been going on for a considerable time, have centred upon the technical problems of producing an effective system of verification for a comprehensive test ban treaty. A further meeting on this matter was held in Geneva in July.
§ LORD BROCKWAYMy Lords, is it not the case now that seismic inspection has gone very far and that the method of recording earth tremors allows this to take place? In view of this technical advance, is it not possible to stop all nuclear explosions?
§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIEMy Lords, the noble Lord will know that we have always urged that those who have not signed the partial test ban treaty should do so, but at the meeting at Geneva in July to which I referred it was agreed that further research into verification techniques is required. While I would agree with him that there has been some advance in seismic monitoring. I am advised that it is not thought that there is yet a sufficient degree of accuracy.