§ The Earl of KIMBERLEYMy 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 can confirm reports that 760 the Russians have recently used chemical warfare near Jellalabad in Afghanistan.
§ Lord TREFGARNEMy Lords, the Government cannot either confirm or deny these reports.
§ The Earl of KIMBERLEYMy Lords, I thank my noble friend for that Answer, which I rather expected. Will it be possible for him to give an assurance to your Lordships that, if at some time in the near future proof is obtained, the people of this country will be informed of this fact so that certain elements may realise that there is a war going on in Afghanistan?
§ Lord TREFGARNEMy Lords, hesitate to give an assurance to inform your Lordships or my noble friend of something like that, because I foresee difficulties in actually producing the proof to which my noble friend referred. However, I shall bear what he says in mind.
§ Lord GISBOROUGHMy Lords, in view of the fact that paragraph 707 of the Statement on the Defence Estimates says:
Furthermore Soviet forces could make intensive use of electronic warfare and have large stocks of chemical munitions"—and there is another reference further back—is it not time that we not only produced our own defence against chemical warfare, but that we also produced our own quantity of this noxious weapon as a deterrent?
§ Lord TREFGARNEMy Lords, that matter was referred to recently by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence, and I should not want to go further than he did then.