§ 2.40 p.m.
§ 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 proposals they intend to submit to the special session of the United Nations General Assembly in August to ease the world deadlock between North and South.
§ The LORD PRESIDENT of the COUNCIL (Lord Soames)My Lords, the special session should adopt an international development strategy. Preparatory work on this is far advanced. The global negotiations should also be launched at the same session. We hope that it will be possible, on the basis of the work already done, to agree an agenda and procedures. We have participated constructively in the preparations for both items, and look forward to positive results on both.
§ Lord BROCKWAYMy Lords, may I ask the Minister this question: Do the proposals which the Government intend to make carry out the suggestions in their report on the Brandt Commission? Have not the Government, in that report, made the extraordinary statement that they believe strongly in the merits of the present world economic system, when one-third of the world is hungry? Is not a new economic order necessary to correct the imbalance in the control of, first, the international finance institutions; secondly, export and import prices; thirdly, transport and, fourthly, the third world economies?
§ Lord SOAMESMy Lords, I think it is dangerous to enter too much into semantics in this regard. Both are true. There is no question but that we believe that the system practised in the world, the system which we follow in the industrialised western world, is the best system for the world as a whole. But that does not mean that there have not been many fundamental changes, ever since the first oil hike in 1973, which have had dire effects on a number of undeveloped countries, notably those that are not oil producers. All this has to be taken into account in deciding how best to go forward. It is very good that this session is to take place, and the noble Lord can rest assured that we shall participate fully in it.
§ Lord GLADWYNMy Lords, would it not be better, seeing that we are to discuss this very matter in a few days' time, to wait till then before pressing the Government for any detailed statement of their point of view?
§ Lord SOAMESMy Lords, I must admit that it would be simpler if we were to make the statement then.
§ Lord BROCKWAYMy Lords, is it not the case that the present economic arrangements in the world were decided at the Bretton Woods Conference before the colonial territories had their independence, and is it not now necessary to look at the whole situation and to give the third world countries partnership in deciding the world economic order?
§ Lord SOAMESMy Lords, a lot of factors are involved. This is a major topic, and not one which is all that easily dealt with by Question and Answer either in this House or in another place. It covers such a multitude of facts and factors.
Lord PAGET od NORTHAMPTONMy Lords, is not the real trouble that since the days of President Wilson it has become fashionable to prefer self-government to good government, and that bad government is something which we have so widely spread that it cannot be compensated for by any level of aid, which generally seems to make bad government even worse?
§ Lord SOAMESMy Lords, again there is something in what the noble Lord has said, but I do not agree with him that it is we who have spread bad government.