Orders of the Day — Western Europe

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 18 November 1954.

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Photo of Mr Robert Boothby Mr Robert Boothby , Aberdeenshire East 12:00, 18 November 1954

He did not know what a free election was at all. That disposes of the theory that we are preventing the unification of Germany.

The fact is that at Berlin the Foreign Secretary bent over backwards to get an agreement with the Russians about the reunification of Germany; and in vain. It would have amounted to the indefinite postponement of E.D.C., and the negotiation of a new treaty with a new German Government, with the Russians taking part and goodness knows what else; but they did not even listen. Why? Because they had made up their minds at that time that they did not dare risk moving anybody out of anywhere in any circumstances.

That was the simple instruction which Molotov brought to Berlin. It did not open the way for any large diplomatic advances in any direction. I think that the great triumph of my right hon. Friend at Berlin was that, despite this somewhat chilling factor, everybody ended rather better friends than when they arrived; and there was, miraculously, a relaxation instead of an increase of tension.

The other reason I think the Russians will not consider the reunification of Germany in the near future is that at present we have nothing to offer them of comparable importance or value to the physical possession of East Germany, which they have got. There it is. I do not see what they have to gain by German reunification at present, because, whatever hon. Members may say, we cannot ensure the permanent neutralisation of a great country like Germany once it is reunited. That is why all this talk about neutralism is such nonsense.