HC Deb 12 March 1975 vol 888 cc138-9W
Mr. Frank Allaun

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, in view of the use of napalm bombs in the Middle, East, Indo-China and Ethiopia, and the suffering they cause, he will initiate moves for the use of napalm bombs and napalm to be banned internationally under the Geneva Convention.

Mr. Ennals

As I said on 20th February in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Mr. Hooley) Her Majesty's Government want the international community to make practical progress towards effective controls on napalm and other "weapons which may cause unnecessary suffering or have indiscriminate effects ". We sent a strong team to the Conference of Government Experts held at Lucerne last October on this subject. We are playing a full part in the current discussions, which cover napalm and other incendiaries, in the Ad Hoc Committee of the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflict in Geneva.