§ 2.43 p.m.
§ Lord BROCKWAYMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will reconsider their decision to supply arms to the Government of Lebanon.
§ The MINISTER of STATE, FOREIGN and COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (Lord Goronwy-Roberts)My Lords, the Government have agreed to meet the reasonable requests for arms from the Lebanese authorities in order to help them rebuild their armed forces, which were largely destroyed in the civil war, and thus re-establish the Lebanese Government's authority throughout the country. The Government see no reason to reconsider their decision.
§ Lord BROCKWAYMy Lords, may I ask the Minister whether there are not two dangers: the first is the instability of the Government. The Times on 15th June said that the Lebanon State has "long since ceased to exist". The second danger is that it may be succeeded by private armies which will take over the arms supplied by our Government and lead to an extension of the sectarian conflict.
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, I think the answer to both contingencies mentioned by my noble friend is that in accordance with the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426, which sought, among other objectives, to restore order in the Lebanon, the Government have seen fit to assist the only legitimate Government of Lebanon to reassert its authority and to ensure that the kind of circumstances that my noble friend rightly fears shall be made less probable than would be the case if they were not assisted to reassert their authority.
Lord PAGET of NORTHAMPTONMy Lords, is not the trouble with the Lebanon that when you put arms in there it is very difficult to know who is going to use them, and there are far too many arms there already?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, the Government have authorised the supply of weapons to the legitimate Government of the country for use by its armed forces. We have no evidence that they are being used improperly or are likely to be transferred to unauthorised hands.
§ Lord BROCKWAYMy Lords, is it not also already the case that private armies are threatening the Government, and that military armies under the ex-President Chamoun may very well take over and use our arms in a sectarian struggle, unhappily named Christian, against the Moslem population?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, that may indeed happen unless the legitimate Government is properly strengthened to meet all such contingencies, and this is what Her Majesty's Government are endeavouring to do, I repeat, in accordance with the objectives of United Nations Security Council Resolutions.
§ Lord LEATHERLANDMy Lords, is my noble friend aware of the opinion that although it might be virtuous to refuse these arms, this is a case where virtue is not its own reward because the Lebanese people would immediately go to another country to get them?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSYes, my Lords, indeed it is a question of whether, if we were to take a wholly negative view of this reasonable request, the Lebanese Government would not find it necessary to apply to some other country, in which case there might be another Question in this House.
§ Lord KINNAIRDMy Lords, in view of what one reads in the Press today, and for the greater safety of the Western world, would the Minister not agree that certain noble Lords and certain honourable gentlemen would be well advised to give up reading Alice in 4 Wonderland and try to understand a children's book called Little Red Riding Hood?
§ Lord GORONWY-ROBERTSMy Lords, I am quite sure that my noble friend's reading experience is somewhat wider than either Alice in Wonderland or Little Red Riding Hood.