§ 118. Mr. K. Robinsonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what steps he is taking to improve our information services in countries behind the Iron Curtain.
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§ Mr. Ian HarveyHer Majesty's Government have every desire to convey the British point of view to the peoples of these countries. British information offices were however closed down there after the war with the exception of a small office in Hungary because the authorities there either insisted on their closing or made it impossible for them to fulfil their functions. When the question of reopening them was raised at the Geneva Conference in November, 1955, M. Molotov said that the Soviet Government had no intention of allowing such an establishment in the Soviet Union and suggested that they had been centres of espionage. It is true that in the joint declaration of 26th April, 1956, the Soviet Government undertook to
take practical steps directed towards ensuring a freer exchange of information by the spoken and the written word".But the only move in this connection since then on the Soviet Government's side has been to renew jamming of the British Broadcasting Corporation's services. I hope that they may see fit to reverse this step.