§ Mr. Hector Hughesasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement about the present position of the talks between the British, United States and Soviet Governments on the possible regulation, limitation, and banning of nuclear weapon tests.
§ Mr. Selwyn LloydThere are no talks on this question taking place at the moment between the British, United States and Soviet Governments. There are, however, discussions going on between representatives of these three Governments and of the French and Canadian Governments in the United Nations Disarmament Sub-Committee. The present position in these discussions is that three sets of proposals have been tabled. The first was the Anglo-French plan: this provides for limitation and eventual prohibition, under control, of tests of all nuclear weapons, as part of a comprehensive disarmament plan. The second was the Soviet plan, which makes 53W no proposals for nuclear disarmament but suggests that it might be desirable to prohibit tests of thermo-nuclear weapons in advance of a general agreement. The Soviet paper contains no suggestion for the control of such a prohibition. The third is a United States working paper which provides for limitation of nuclear weapon tests, under control, as part of an agreement for partial disarmament.
These sets of proposals remain under consideration in the Disarmament Sub-Committee, and no agreement has so far been reached on any aspect of the disarmament problem.