§ 45. Mr. Langford-Holtasked the Prime Minister whether the speech made in Rome by the President of the Board of Trade on 14th June with regard to the policy of Britain of maintaining agricultural imports from the Continent in view of the projected European Free Trade Area at the expense of increased Commonwealth exports represents the policy of Her Majesty's Government.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerI have been asked to reply.
My right hon. Friend took the opportunity when he was in Rome to answer the criticism widely made in Europe of Her Majesty's Government's policy of excluding agriculture from the scope of our proposals for a Free Trade Area. He explained that we could not undertake new arrangements to import more food from Europe at the expense of the Commonwealth. Following my right hon. Friend's Press conference the Italian newspapers gave a very fair account of our position on agriculture, in which the importance of maintaining our arrangements with the Commonwealth were fully and sympathetically referred to.