HC Deb 15 December 1948 vol 459 cc147-8W
67. Mr. K. Lindsay

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what steps have been taken to implement Article III of the Brussels Treaty.

Mr. Bevin

Some items in the programme of work are best undertaken bilaterally and some on a Five Power basis. Among the former such problems as the equivalence of University diplomas and degrees, the exchange of professors and teachers, vacation courses and the exchange of schoolchildren are being tackled. Exhibitions of art treasures and the mutual visits of dramatic and ballet companies and musical performers are being arranged. To facilitate these things the network of Cultural Conventions between the Five Powers is being completed. His Majesty's Government are now negotiating a Convention with Luxembourg.

Coming to the items which must be approached by all Five Powers in concert: representatives of the Five Powers who met in London last August and again in Paris in November recommended in particular that the obstacles to the free movement of persons and material connected with the objects of Article III of the Treaty should be examined in the five countries and proposals made how they might be surmounted. The results of these investigations will be studied by the five Governments and it is hoped that they will be able to remove at least some of the obstacles

The Ministries of Education in the Brussels Treaty countries are collaborating with each other on such subjects as exchange of information about methods of instruction, legislation affecting schools and universities and other matters of educational interest and are considering questions of Five Power subjects in school curricula. His Majesty's Government is organising a course at Ashridge in Hertfordshire in August, 1949, in which 50 teachers will take part, 30 of whom will be invited from the four other member countries. The object is to bring about exchanges of views on the subject of "Western Union in Schools" and this course will be the first of a series; the remaining courses to be held in the other five countries. The interchange of education inspectors is being arranged; inspectors from the other countries will visit the United Kingdom in 1949 and return visits to France will be paid in 1950.

The B.B.C. in consultation with the broadcasting organisations in the other four countries are giving programmes designed to familiarise the countries with one another and to bring into focus the aims of Article III.