asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in view of the recent agreement between the South Vietnam authorities and the United States Government to increase American military assistance in South Vietnam, contrary to the Geneva Agreement, he will now propose to the Soviet co-Chairman the recall of the 1954 Geneva Conference.

rose—

On a point of order. This Question is addressed to the Foreign Secretary, not only as Foreign Secretary but in his personal capacity as co-Chairman of the Geneva Conference. Could I therefore have a reply from the right hon. Gentleman?

That is not a point of order for me.

No, Sir. Nothing in the United States policy declaration issued from the White House on 17th March, a copy of which has been placed in the library of the House, affects the arguments against the calling of a Geneva conference on Vietnam which I expressed in answer to the hon. Gentleman on 10th February.

Is war without end to be the only prospect for the long-suffering people of Vietnam? [HON. MEMBERS: "Ask the Communists."] If, as some hon. Members opposite think, it depends upon the Communists, would it not be a good idea to take the kind of initiative which Sir Anthony Eden, as he then was, took in 1954 and call the Communists and the Americans and all the other parties concerned again into a conference in order to bring peace and neutrality to this area?

I certainly hope that war without end is not the prospect for the people of Vietnam. I hope that the Communist activities in the Republic of Vietnam will cease and that they and the North Vietnamese authorities will stop assisting the insurgency movement in the Republic of Vietnam, when there may well be a prospect of peace. We see no point in reconvening the Geneva Conference when the Communists failed to honour their obligations under the last conference by interfering in the affairs of Vietnam.

Has the hon. Gentleman forgotten that the International Control Commission, in its special report in June, 1962, condemned the American military assistance then being given to the South Vietnam Government as a violation of the Geneva Agreement? Since that military assistance is now being intensified, is it not to be even more condemned equally with any Communist infiltration that there may be? Is not the right course to put an end to both by summoning a conference?

I know that the International Control Commission in one of its reports found that there was action taken by the North Vietnamese authorities to assist the Vietcong in their insurgency movement in the Republic of Vietnam. As for the second part of the supplementary question, I do not find the United States policy of helping the Republic of Vietnam to resist Communist subversion inconsistent with the Geneva Agreement.