§ Mr. Cordleasked the Lord Privy Seal what measures are being taken to counter the effect on United States and other foreign opinion of demonstrations at the Holy Loch Polaris base.
§ Mr. GodberI do not believe that United States and other foreign opinion is seriously led astray by disproportionate publicity given to the Holy Loch demonstrations. In Her Majesty's Government's publicity overseas, full information is made available concerning British defence policy and public support for it. Our practical contribution to the defence of the free world in all its various forms, including our own nuclear forces and our undertakings to our allies are also fully and constantly documented.
The remarks made by my noble Friend the Foreign Secretary during his recent 86W visit to the United States should have done much to dispel any current misapprehensions and to make our position fully understood there. On the particular point of the demonstrations at Holy Loch, my noble Friend, in a speech in Chicago on 16th June, contrasted the Holy Loch group of persistent demonstrators with that much surer yardstick of opinion, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland which recently, in a considered vote, passed by an overwhelming majority, a resolution facing the facts of the nuclear deterrent in general and the Holy Loch base in particular.