§ Miss Maynardasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth 36W Affairs whether he will take steps to secure the appointment of a permanent UN commission on international traffic in weapons of war, with the duty of formulating international conventions aimed at the registration of international arms sales and the progressive limitation of such traffic between sovereign States.
§ Mr. TomlinsonI share my hon. Friend's objective. However, proposals for the registration of international arms sales made to the United Nations First Committee in 1965 and 1968 were not adopted, mainly because of opposition from developing countries which did not wish their arms purchases to be publicised. There is no evidence that a new proposal of this kind would be any more favourably received today.