I do not consider that this is a Motion on which the House ought to grant leave to introduce a Bill. According to perfectly respectable practice, which is of very long standing, commercial firms in this country meet the proper requirements of foreign Governments with whom Her Majesty's Government are in friendly relations.

I should join the hon. Member for Greenwich (Mr. Marsh) if the scope of his proposed Bill were restricted to irregular transactions by private individuals for speculative gain in the selling of surplus arms howsoever acquired, but, as he has adumbrated the Bill—none of us has yet seen it in print, and I hope that we shall not—it appears that what the hon. Gentleman proposes would extend to firms such as the great manufacturing firms upon which Her Majesty's Government themselves depend for the supply of arms, and such firms would be refused leave to sell to foreign Governments the arms which those Governments needed either for their own self-defensive requirements or for the requirements of bodies such as N.A.T.O., to which they contributed.

The hon. Gentleman mentioned, in particular, sales of arms to the Yemen. He suggested that there was something improper in sales of arms taking place to the body to which he referred as supposedly receiving them. That body is the Government of the Yemen, recognised by Her Majesty's Government, namely, the Government of His Majesty the Imam of the Yemen Kingdom. If arms are sold to that Government, this