§ 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 what conclusions were reached by the United Nations Seabed Committee at their recent meeting in Geneva.
§ THE MINISTER OF STATE, FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE)My Lords, the Committee's task has not been to reach conclusions, but to prepare for the U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea. It has made good progress.
§ LORD BROCKWAYMy Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that many of us would like to hear about the "good progress"? Is there any area in international affairs where there is now such utter confusion as the seabed?—yes, my Lords, at this moment even more than the Middle East. It involves fishing, oil, nuclear weapons on the seabed and mineral rights. Are we really to wait until the Conference next year—it may be delayed until 1975—before we have any solution of this confusion?
§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIEMy Lords, I am afraid I do not agree with the noble Lord. I should have thought that the conflict in the Middle East in causing much more concern in the world at this time. But there are great difficulties and the Seabed Committee has agreed on a list of issues with which the Conference should deal and has produced a comparative text of draft Articles which represents the major groups of opinion on the most important subjects involved. It is still hoped to 624 have an organisation conference at the end of this year and to start the major negotiating Conference in 1974.
§ LORD BROCKWAYMy Lords, is it still proposed to hold the Conference in Chile next year? That would seem to me a more suitable place for a conference on the land rather than on the seabed. But may I ask the noble Baroness this question? What is to happen meanwhile to the mining companies which are now beginning, with very heavy investment, to operate in the international waters? What is to be done to confine them?
§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIEMy Lords. I understand that the Government of Chile has asked that the Conference should not be convened in Santiago, and the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly has to decide where it should be convened. I think that every effort is being made to make sure that it does start substantially next year. On the other question, the mining companies have the right to explore the seabed under the 1958 Convention.
§ LORD SEGALMy Lords, while "rocked in the cradle of the deep", will the Government, so far as the seabed is concerned, resist the temptation to lie down and sleep?
§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR or BELHELVIEMy Lords, I cannot see any possibility of their having time to sleep.
§ LORD KENNETMy Lords, would the Government consider the possibility of having a Green Paper or a consultation paper of some sort on this subject between now and the time when they have to go up to the U.N. Conference and take up a position? Is it not the case that in this country many interests are involved whose livelihoods are at stake in the future régime of the sea, and many of them have not a clue about what is happening? Could the Government's tentative views be set out for consultation purposes? Would that not clarify the matter a great deal?
§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIEMy Lords, as I said, draft Articles have been prepared by the Seabed Committee which will be published by the United Nations for the Law 625 of the Sea Conference. We had a full debate in this House on July 11 when we went into the matter pretty clearly. We could not give our detailed negotiating position, for obvious reasons.
§ LORD KENNETMy Lords, will the Government still bear in mind these two facts? The first is that United Nations publications do not reach the general public in this country very easily, and the second is that what is going to affect our lives is the position the Government take up. If the Government have not entirely made up their minds on this subject, as I suspect they have not, would it not be seemly, democratic and informative for the Government to set out considerations and alternatives for general discussion among those affected?
§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIEMy Lords, I take the point that United Nations documents are not on the whole read very easily by the general public. I will give consideration to this matter. But I think that we went quite deeply into the subject on a Motion raised by the noble Lord himself.
§ LORD BROCKWAYMy Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that I did not mean in the least to suggest that the appalling problem of the Middle East is not urgent? I was thinking of much more long-term considerations, where the seas of the world will become as important as the land of the world.
§ BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIEMy Lords, I would agree on the great importance of the subject, and that is why it has taken so long to prepare for this Conference which has already been postponed for one year.