HC Deb 12 November 1951 vol 493 cc6-7W
56. Mr. Fenner Brockway

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will make a statement as to the Government's attitude towards the exchange of opinion between the Governments of Western and Eastern Germany regarding the unification of Germany on a democratic basis.

Mr. Nutting

His Majesty's Government, together with the French and United States Governments, have always supported the peaceful unification of Germany as soon as it can take place on democratic lines ensuring the creation of a free Germany able to play her part in the peaceful association of free European nations. They have accordingly welcomed the proposals made to this end by the German Federal Government, in the course of the recent exchanges with the authorities in Eastern Germany.

In response to a suggestion of the German Federal Chancellor, His Majesty's Government and the French and United States Governments have now proposed that the United Nations Assembly should consider the appointment of an impartial international commission to carry out an investigation in the Federal Republic in Berlin and in the Soviet zone, to determine whether existing conditions there make it possible to hold genuinely free elections throughout these areas.