HL Deb 20 April 1983 vol 441 cc564-6

2.52 p.m.

Lord Hatch of Lusby

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question standing in my name on the Order paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they informed the Franks Committee that arms and ammunition, licensed by the Government, were being exported from this country to the Argentine throughout the month of March 1982.

Lord Belstead

My Lords, the Franks Committee were informed of all major United Kingdom defence contracts with Argentina during the period 1964–82. The deliveries were detailed on a yearly rather than a monthly basis.

Lord Hatch of Lusby

My Lords, in thanking the noble Lord for that Answer, may I ask him whether his attention has been drawn to the Answer given by his noble friend the Secretary of State for Trade at column 1455 on 29th March this year, in which he informed me that over £1 million worth of military material had been sent from this country to the Argentine during the month of March 1982? In the light of that Answer would he not agree that this, along with the projected withdrawal of HMS "Endurance", could be taken as a signal by the Argentine junta that there was no intention on the part of this Government to resist any invasion of the Falklands?

Lord Belstead

My Lords, I would not agree with that as it would seem from paragraph 280 of the report of the Franks Committee that they did not consider defence sales to be a major factor in their review.

Lord Bishopston

My Lords, I am sure that the Minister will accept that the matter of the export of arms and ammunition to the Argentine is an on-going policy. Will he accept that the House is probably even more concerned with the policy pursued in that matter since March 1982, and will he give some indication of the general principles which now apply in relation to it?

Lord Belstead

My Lords, I accept what the noble Lord has said, that the future is more important to us now than the past. I hope the noble Lord will not think that I am being dismissive or discourteous when I say that that is not what the Question is about.

Lord Elystan-Morgan

My Lords, will the noble Lord kindly tell the House what was the total value of armaments sold by the United Kingdom to the Argentine in the whole of 1981?

Lord Belstead

My Lords, I am sorry that I have not got the figure with me. I will get it and write to the noble Lord.

Lord Hatch of Lusby

My Lords, would the noble Lord not agree that, if he had been in a Government which were receiving arms from a potential enemy, he would have considered that that supply of arms indicated that there would not be military action against him? In view of that proposition, would he not also agree that the continued supply of parts of armaments since the end of the Falklands war by companies in this country to assist in the rearmament of Argentina in the past 12 months is likely to give the same impression?

Lord Belstead

My Lords, as far as the first part of the noble Lord's supplementary question is concerned, I think that the noble Lord is rather forgetting who attacked whom. It is absurd to suggest that when, in the past, Her Majesty's Government have been delivering armaments to another country it should therefore be the case that that other country would not expect that Her Majesty's Government would attack it. But that is not what happened. Britain was attacked by the Argentine, unexpectedly, in a way which the Franks Report has recorded in paragraph 337: We are convinced that the invasion of 2nd April 1982 could not have been foreseen". So far as the second part of the noble Lord's supplementary question is concerned, that refers to the future. I conceded to the noble Lord, Lord Bishopston, that that is important; but that is not what the present Question is about.

Lord Hatch of Lusby

My Lords, I think the noble Lord has misunderstood my supplementary question. May I put it to him again? May I ask him the same supplementary question in simpler language? At the beginning of March 1982, as the Franks Committee has reported, the Foreign Office here warned our representative in Buenos Aires that we were on the verge of a confrontation. If the noble Lord had been in the position of the Argentine Foreign Minister at that time, would he not have imagined that, so long as Britain was supplying arms to the Argentine, any invasion by them would not be met by retaliation from this country, which was supplying the arms?

Lord Belstead

My Lords, I do not think I can go over the ground again. It has been covered exhaustively by the Franks Committee. They reached the conclusion that I have read out to the House.