The following Question stood upon the Order Paper:

To ask the Prime Minister if he will make a statement concerning the Government's policy in regard to German reunification in the light of the exchange of Notes between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Western Powers.

With your permission, Sir, and that of the House, I will now answer Question No. 52.

The declared policy of Her Majesty's Government and their Allies is that Germany should be reunified by free elections and that the resulting all-German Government should be free to choose its own domestic and foreign policies. But they are ready at any time to enter into discussions with the Soviet Government in any appropriate forum on any proposals genuinely designed to ensure the reunification of Germany in freedom.

Has the attention of the Prime Minister been directed to a statement by Mr. Foster Dulles that free elections are not necessarily the only way of achieving the reunification of Germany? If so, does he agree with that statement? Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that there really is need now for a greater sense of urgency than the Prime Minister has yet shown in this matter? Has he not realised that there are certain things now occurring in Western Germany which are taking on a quite ugly significance? Is he not aware that the German forces are being trained in the use of weapons which could be armed with nuclear warheads?

Is the right hon. Gentleman further aware that the situation has not been helped by Dr. Adenauer's insistence that Western Germany does not accept the Oder-Neisse line? How far must the situation go on deteriorating before an initiative is taken by the West? Would he really speed up action?

There are a number of parts to that supplementary question and I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will forgive me if I do not remember them all.

I said that the declared policy of the Government and their Allies was the reunification of Germany by free elections. I said at the end of my statement that we were ready to discuss in any appropriate forum any proposals designed to ensure the reunification of Germany in freedom. I thoroughly agree with what Mr. Dulles said as being quite in conformity with Allied opinion. I quote what he said: The formula of reunification by free elections was the agreed formula. It seems to us to be a natural method. But I would not say that it is the only method by which reunification could be accomplished. It was for that reason that I ended my original statement by saying that we were prepared to discuss any measures to achieve the purpose in this wider spirit to which he referred.

As to the other questions, there are, of course, some difficulties and alarming situations. There is the Soviet Note about Berlin. All these problems are being studied in consultation with our Allies. The House will remember that I made a reply. There were several different—I think there were three separate—replies. We all suggested that there should be a conference. The Russians then made counter-proposals with regard to the character of that conference, and its place. We have now to consider our reply to that proposal.

What does the right hon. Gentleman suggest for discussion with the Soviet Union? What sort of conference? Is it to be an open conference? Do we intend to put forward proposals of our own? Is it not obvious that mere reiteration, such as the right hon. Gentleman has made this afternoon, about free elections in Germany and the right of a reunited Germany to join any allies she likes, is no recipe for a solution of this problem at all? It does not really move things one inch at the present time. Are we to go on waiting until this alarming situation becomes even more terrifying before we take the initiative?

No, but our position is that if and when, as I hope we shall, we have a conference, we shall have discussions with a hope of arriving at some arrangement agreeable to both sides.

The problem of reunification is most unlikely to be solved unless the problem of European security is solved at the same time. Can we have an assurance that the Government, as far as lies within their power, will urge their Allies of the West to put forward positive proposals on both points?

That is one of the reasons why I do not want to be too precise. In the Russian Note, the right hon. Gentleman will observe that the Russians wished the subject to be only Germany. We had rather wished to extend it, in our proposal, to European security. I do not want to haggle about words. We may find a formula by which we could have such a conference without turning down one or other of the suggestions. That is why today we want to make it as wide as possible, but I would accept even a narrower basis such as the Soviet suggestion if we could, in the course of discussion and negotiation, broaden it into the wider considerations.

As Mr. Dulles has suggested that there are means other than free elections of achieving the reunification of Germany, has any such suggestion been made to the right hon. Gentleman from American sources? Has any submission to that effect been made?

This statement was made at a conference. Of course, we are in very close touch. We have our experts trying to consider together, and we have other people to consult as well, the French and the Germans, as to these possible methods and about the position which we might take at a conference.

Reverting to my previous question, I wonder whether the right hon. Gentleman will answer this. Is it the view of the Government that the West German Republic should, whatever the circumstances, remain free to decide whether or not, if there is a reunited Germany, Germany remains within N.A.T.O.? Is he aware that if the Governments of the Western Allies insist upon this condition, the prospect of any settlement in Europe is really negligible?

I do not understand how a country can be said to be free if it is not able to follow the foreign policy that it wishes. The right hon. Gentleman, in question and answer, has raised a very grave issue. For my part, I say that our position is as I have said that it must be, the right of a country to make its own foreign policy.

What if the Government insist that Germany must remain thus free, even though the West German Government themselves might decide, in order to achieve reunification, to renounce this freedom?

How can we force a Government to do something that they are not willing or wishing to do? All these things cannot really be debated in this way. They are very large and difficult issues. I want a conference, I want a solution, but I do not intend to go to a conference having first, in public, taken a position which would weaken myself and my Allies in such a conference.

Does not the right hon. Gentleman realise that his last statement is rather in contradiction to his opening statement? He gave us the impression at the beginning that he was quite prepared to enter into a conference without taking up any position beforehand. Does he not realise that what he has now said imposes an impossible inhibition upon any settlement being reached, if, as he says all the time, we must, whatever settlement is reached, leave Western Germany or reunited Germany free to choose its allies? That has always been accepted as an impossible condition for the success of a conference of this sort.

The right hon. Gentleman speaks as though Soviet policy over these years showed great flexibility and give. I do not think that that is so. I was asked what was the policy of the Government. I will repeat it. It is that Germany should be reunited by free elections and that the resulting all-German Government should be free to choose their own domestic and foreign policies. I added this rider: I agree with what Mr. Dulles said, that the precise method of making that unification, so long as it is genuinely free, could be a subject in which more than one method could be found.

Does the Prime Minister not realise that statements like Mr. Dulles's statement, made in isolation, namely, that other means of achieving reunification could be adopted, lead to confusion? Would not the right hon. Gentleman try to clear up or remove the confusion by himself making a declaration to that effect quite categorically, so that we may know that the Allies are operating in concert?

I shall continue to do my best to secure that the reply sent by the Allies to the Russian Government regarding the possibility of a conference shall be one which carries with it the full approval of all the Allies concerned.