Foreign Affairs

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 20 July 1967.

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Photo of Mr George Brown Mr George Brown , Belper 12:00, 20 July 1967

I am very much obliged to my right hon. Friend. I regard him as more of an authority on these matters than is Mr. Humphry Berkeley.

I have the issue very much in mind. Last year, I considered very closely whether we should change our practice in this procedural matter. It is a very difficult issue and one must pick the moment when we bring the procedural vote into line with the other vote. I do not think we would have helped if we had done anything about that up to now.

I was saying that international relations must, of course, be a two-way business. I think that we can honestly claim that we have made considerable efforts in the past to improve our relations with China. We are willing to go on doing so, but all the efforts cannot come from one side. If China is interested in better relations, it is up to her to show it and to recognise that such an improvement cannot be based on action by us alone.

In so many of the really important fields in foreign affairs, as the right hon. Gentleman will know better yet than I do, policies must be pursued consistently and vigorously over long periods if they are to have a chance to be successful. There are very few short cuts in this area of policy. This is true of our determination to have better relations with China; it applies equally to our policy of détente between East and West, to the whole movement towards European integration and, above all, as I said at the beginning, to our United Nations policy. We believe that we have the right aims in our foreign policy. We recognise the need to pursue them consistently and in the knowledge that results must sometimes—and I might even say often—be slow in coming. We also know that the tactical handling of these matters requires a great deal of flexibility. I ask the House to approach these issues in the debate in the same spirit.