§ Mr. Hugh Jenkinsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government will accept amendments to its draft treaty presented to the Geneva Disarmament Committee to outlaw the use of toxins and to provide for the international inspection of all chemical and biological warfare factories, production, testing and other sites.
§ Mr. George ThomsonThe draft Convention tabled by Her Majesty's Government in the Committee on Disarmament on 10th July would deal only with biological methods of warfare. It would therefore be inappropriate for it to provide for inspection of chemical installations. Provision for inspection of biologican installations has not been made because this would have to be so intrusive as to be politically unacceptable to many states and would in any case provide no guarantee against clandestine production of biological warfare agents. Toxins, although produced by living organisms, do not themselves multiply and are usually regarded as chemical substances. However, if it was widely felt that toxins should be covered by our draft Biological Warfare Convention because of their biological origin, Her Majesty's Government would be very ready to consider appropriate amendments.
192W