§ 92. Mr. T. Reidasked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations if he has considered the requests of the Governments of India, Pakistan and Burma to assist them in respect to their diplomatic affairs in foreign countries; and what replies he is making.
§ Mr. Gordon-WalkerI am not sure what requests my hon. Friend has in mind in his reference to India and Pakistan. 83W A feature of the structure of the Commonwealth is that the United Kingdom post in any foreign country is freely at the disposal of any other Commonwealth country which is not separately represented. This arrangement applies equally to India and Pakistan as to all other members of the Commonwealth, and no specific requests have been necessary to enable them to benefit by it. We are gladly doing what we can to meet any requests from India and Pakistan for assistance in establishing their own posts in foreign countries.
As for Burma, I understand that we are now, at the request of the Burmese Government, protecting their interests in certain countries where they have no representatives of their own, and have assisted them to the best of our ability in establishing their own Missions.