HC Deb 24 July 1969 vol 787 c455W
Q6. Mr. Winnick

asked the Prime Minister what further consultations he has had with other heads of government regarding relief food supplies to those most in need in the Biafran-held territory.

Q10. Earl of Dalkeith

asked the Prime Minister what progress he is making in concert with Commonwealth Prime Ministers in seeking the agreement of the Federal Nigerian Government with a view to ending the civil war by means of a combined Commonwealth Peace-Keeping Force.

The Prime Minister

We have been in touch with a number of Governments and organisations with a view to encouraging them to urge Colonel Ojukwu not to reject the proposals for daylight flights made by the Federal Government and discussed recently with the I.C.R.C. in Lagos.

So far as a peace-keeping force is concerned, the Federal Nigerian Government made known their willingness to have such a force at the Kampala talks in May, 1968, and their offer, repeated at the Addis Ababa talks last August, remains on record. Should both sides in the conflict accept as part of a ceasefire agreement that a Commonwealth peace-keeping force should be sought, then I have no doubt that one could be raised. Our own willingness to contribute to such a force was announced in the House on 2nd July, 1968.—[Vol. 767, c. 1307–15.]