Debate on the Address

Part of Orders of the Day — Queen's Speech – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 29 October 1959.

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Photo of Mr Harold Davies Mr Harold Davies , Leek 12:00, 29 October 1959

The hon. and learned Gentleman said Asia at the beginning but finished this sentence without adding Asia. I took it down as he said it. If he looks up HANSARD tomorrow he will find I am right on that sentence. What was he trying to prove?

He then uttered another absurdity. Did he want China at Matsu and Quemoy to plunge the world into World War III? I was in the United States at that moment and I had to broadcast after Madame Chiang Kai-Shek in New York at eight o'clock one morning, when she urged the Americans to drop the atom bomb on the mainland of China. British people and the would can be grateful that the Chinese People's Republic withheld its firing power over the islands of Quemoy and Matsu.

What absurdity is the hon. and learned Gentleman coming down to the House to utter? Did he want China to plunge us into a third world war? Was he following the shadow of Dulles? Because the Dulles policy in the Straits of Taiwan was one of the most dangerous policies of that time? Obviously the hon. and learned Gentleman tried to twist the truth in a sanctimonious, quiet manner in order to make the House think he was uttering something worth listening to. The real truth is that the world can be grateful that the Chinese People's Republic did not plunge us into a third world war over the incidents in the straits near Quemoy and Matsu. Basically the American people were grateful too, because they want peace as much as the Russian people do if their voices can get through to the international conferences.

Now the Indian situation. The hon. and learned Gentleman seems to assume that the international authorities of the world are already agreed on the Sino-Indian frontier line. There was an incident on 20th October, 1959. There was another incident on 21st October south of the Kongka Pass, which is a small corner jutting into Tibet. Yet the last peace treaty that was made, the last written document about this area, was in 1842 between the States of Kashmir and the southern States of Tibet. The Sinkiang high road and railway to Tibet that the Chinese have been building these last five or six years has been going through that territory, therefore the Indians and the rest of the world knew about it, and there were no incidents on that frontier. The truth and the tragedy of this position is that owing to the stupidity and the stubborness of the party opposite in not taking a lead to initiate the entrance of the Chinese People's Republic into the United Nations, we now find ourselves without any negotiating machine where we can modify this tendency and the difference about the Sino-Indian frontier, and in the Gracious Speech there is nothing about this important part of the world.

The House should realise that the one country in Asia with which we have diplomatic relations and the one country in the Far East where we could use our ambassador or chargé d'affaires in Peking is the one country where this Government, through all the differences in Laos, all the differences in India, all the differences in Quemoy and Matsu last year, has made no move. In fact, the Government dwell in a fool's paradise.

If any Member on any side of the House is of the opinion that there will be a division between Soviet Russia and China and that we can follow the ancient and old-fashioned rule of imperialism, divide and rule, as we did in India, as regards these two great nations, then there is a great rethink coming to the whole of the Western world. The linking of the great Soviet peoples and the Chinese peoples is a fact of world history and, whether the House likes it or whether mankind likes it, it is the fact that through the stupidity of Western man and through the American policy of stopping East-West trade, the majority of Chinese trade today is linked to the technology and the efficiency of the U.S.S.R.

So called erudite magazines write about the incapability of Russia. I remember the magazine Fortune, glossy and bizarre, coming out a week before the U.S.S.R. put its Sputnik in the sky. It stated that Russian technology and science was miles behind that of the Western world. To be fair, there are obviously spheres where it is behind, but there are also obviously spheres where it is miles in advance. Is it not time we stopped this childish business of name-calling? Is it not time that the present Government with their large majority should realise that they must speak for Britain and work for peace in the two great areas of the under-endowed coloured man in South-East Asia and Central Africa? Unless the party opposite adopts a constructive and peaceful policy for solving these problems there is not the slightest doubt that the Soviet Union will leap into the leadership in those areas.

The question is often asked why we on this side of the House have not done that. That question could be answered in half a minute. I have been in trouble for years for urging a cut in the armaments programme. We are often asked the elementary question, "How would you pay for this and that?" There is the natural dynamism and the geometrical progression of an intelligent economy in the modern world, no matter what party is in power. If the Labour Party had been in power in the last five years people would have had as much as they have received under the Tories, if not more.

Let us face the facts. The Chancellor of the Exchequer admitted that the improvement was due to the terms of trade. Unless we are prepared to cut back on armaments and adopt a new approach to N.A.T.O. we shall never achieve these ends. At present, we are adopting a childish approach to N.A.T.O., that of trying to build up armaments. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Ebbw Vale (Mr. Bevan) said in 1957, we cannot use threats to commit national suicide either as a method of negotiation or as a weapon of defence.

Unless we can get a completely new approach to the defence policy and unless we as a small country can cut back on armaments expenditure there is no doubt that the leadership of the Oriental man or of the Asian man will be taken over by the Soviet Union. The first organisation in Europe which must be improved is the narrow, wobbly setup of N.A.T.O.

I want for two or three minutes to talk about S.E.A.T.O. and Laos. Twice in the last few years I have been in Laos. In May and June of this year I urged the Foreign Secretary to look into the problem of international political power intrigue which was taking place in Laos. Here we have a typical example of aid going to the unendowed Oriental man and being used in the wrong way.

The first question we have to consider is this. After the agreement between Pathet Lao and the Laotian Government, the Pathet Lao group was told that it could have representatives in the Government. I do not want to take up the time of the House by going into that agreement in detail, but hon. Members can take it from me that I am speaking accurately on the matter. That agreement was broken. The International Commission came out of Laos and the Soviet Union asked, as one of the co-chairmen, for the 1954 Geneva Conference to be recalled.

Here is a constructive point which could be put forward by the British Government. Why cannot the Foreign Secretary as co-chairman co-operate with the Soviet Union in recalling the Geneva Conference? I put down a Question on the matter during the last Parliament. Here is a constructive lead which the British people could take. Let us speak for Britain rather than for the United States of America. Dulles kept away from the Geneva Conference. He only went there as an observer. In this way the British Government could capture the initiative.

I would not be so unfair or so uncouth as to accuse hon. and right hon. Gentlemen opposite of not wanting peace. I sincerely believe that they do. I believe that the Prime Minister wants peace as much as the hon. Member for Leek. We do not know how to approach the matter. I only wish that we knew the answer. I sincerely believe that as far as Laos is concerned—and I would like an answer to this tonight—we as co-chairman should co-operate with the Soviet Union and recall the Geneva Conference. In addition, we should invite Vietnam, both North and South, and the Communist Republic of China. That is the only way of reassessing the entire position in the Far East.

I know that other hon. Members wish to speak in the debate and that is why I am abandoning my notes. New hon. Members will soon learn that we in this House try to help each other if we can and to say what we have to say shortly and succinctly in order to make our point. There is one other thing, however, that I wish to say. Ernest Bevin was the initiator of the Colombo Plan. Let us be fair about this matter. We cannot pass it up. If we are setting ourselves up to be like Sparta and if we are going to be a military nation like Sparta, then, obviously, we shall have to live like Sparta.

Because so much of the so-called prosperity of Britain and of the United States is based entirely on the armaments machine certain people are afraid of these utterances. This fear is not reflected in the cheap journals, but in the Wall Street journals. They are afraid of the peace dragging on. This is a tragedy of the capitalist world. The only answer is long-term credit and cooperation with both the Soviet Union and Communist China in order to help the Oriental and the African man.

What is wrong about the Russians believing in their philosophy? They have as much right to propagate it as the missionaries had in the last century. There is nothing underhand or devilish about it. They have had the intelligence to send men into those areas. I have travelled around these parts and I have seen that the men that they send in take the trouble to do their homework. They learn the local language and show the people how to use the material on the spot. That means that a rouble goes proportionately much further than a £ from Britain or a dollar from America. The Russians are not asking the local people to buy material from them, but are teaching them to use the materials of their own country and to use them for the purposes of the local man.

I was amazed to hear the hon. and learned Member for Darwen (Mr. Fletcher-Cooke) say that the prestige of the People's Republic of China was low because China did not attack Quemoy and Matsu. The Bandoeng Powers did their best, but the Chinese had enough sense to hold their fire. The duty of the British Government is to see that China takes her rightful place in the United Nations.