Foreign Affairs

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 4 December 1958.

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Photo of Mr Aneurin Bevan Mr Aneurin Bevan , Ebbw Vale 12:00, 4 December 1958

I will endeavour to answer the questions of the Foreign Secretary a little later. I would only draw attention to the significance of the position that now we are faced with a series of questions from the Government to the Opposition which reveals that in this matter the initiative has been with the Opposition for a very long time. Now the spokesmen of the Government are trying to adjust their ideas slowly to what the Opposition have been saying. I am, of course, extremely grateful for that and there are a number of other ideas also which we can put forward when the right hon. and learned Gentleman has exhausted those.

On the suspension of tests, when I asked the right hon. Gentleman the other day for a White Paper, I appreciated, as I think all of us on both sides of the House appreciated, that it is far better that very delicate negotiations should take place privately, in secrecy, because in those circumstances spokesmen of the nations taking part can make tentative suggestions without being committed to them. Unfortunately, we do not have secrecy. We have a kind of twilight situation in which no one can see what attitude the other party is taking up. We have all kinds of ex-parte statements made without any proper answers to them.

I am delighted to discover from the right hon. and learned Gentleman that some progress appears to have been made, but there are one or two questions that I would like to put to him. I should like to know, for example, what is meant by the term "impulse towards" a general disarmament agreement. Our information is that the American delegation has been instructed to insist, as it has insisted all along in these discussions, that agreement about the stopping of nuclear tests and inspection must be accompanied by substantial progress towards a comprehensive disarmament agreement. That language has been dropped today and the right hon. and learned Gentleman has substituted the words "impulse towards". What does that mean? Does it mean that, if an agreement can be reached on inspection, control and suspension, that agreement would not be satisfactory unless there is added to it an impulse towards a comprehensive disarmament agreement?