§ Mr. G. Macdonaldasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can make any statement on the recent meeting of the Bureau of the Disarmament Conference; and what is the attitude of His Majesty's Government on the respective Draft Conventions on publicity for National Defence expenditure and a permanent disarmament commission?
§ Viscount CranborneAs regards the first part of the question, I would refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for East Wolverhampton (Mr. Mander) yesterday. As regards the second part of the question, His Majesty's Government have already stated at Geneva that they are ready to accept a system of publicity for National Defence expenditure on the general lines of the Draft Convention prepared by the Technical Committee on this subject, if the principal Powers of the world will also 1981W accept it. The hon. Member is under a misapprehension in referring to two conventions. The bureau will communicate to governments only the Draft Convention on Publicity of National Defence Expenditure, which refers to the working of a co-ordinating and supervisory organ.