INVITATION TO CHOU

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29384, 10 December 1960, Page 13

INVITATION TO CHOU

Move Rejected By Macmillan LONDON. December 8. The Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan). today rejected a suggestion that he should invite the Chinese Premier (Mr Chou En-lai) to London to discuss China's membership of the United Nations. Mr Macmillan, answering a Labour member. Mr Woodrow Wyatt, in the House of Commons, said: “I do not consider such an invitation would be useful at the present time” Mr Wyatt asked how the Prime Minister distinguished between inviting the Soviet Prime Minister, Mr Khrushchev, and other Russian leaders to London and not the Chinese Prime Minister. “How is Mr Khrushchev going to persuade the Chinese that war is not inevitable and how can we expect disarmament negotiations to succeed while we continue to insult the Chinese in the West?” he asked.

Mr Macmillan replied: “I do not think it is insulting to a man not to invite him. I regard the question of timing as important.” The Leader of the Oppositon, Mr Gaitskell. recalled that the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Dicfenbaker, had recently called for a review of Western policy towards China and urged the importance of bringing China into any political settlement. Mr Gaitskell added: “It Is enormously important to break through the wall that separates us and the West as a whole from China and to make some progress in this direction."

Mr Macmillan repeated that it was a matter of timing. Mr Wyatt asked if the Prime Minister could say something more about timing The Government had been in power for 10 rears and nothing had been done. Would something be done in the next 10 years?

Mr Macmillan told Mr Wyatt: “li you. with your great enlightenment, feel I have failed to make any contribution towards foreign affairs and trying to alleviate the position between East and West, you are entitled to take that view.”