Unless, therefore, some counter-expedient were devised, a large increase in the slave trade must be expected, which had only been delayed by a commercial Crisis in Cuba.

The Crisis in Cuba must be aligned with the Russian attitude towards world Communism, with the Berlin crisis and, indeed, with the invasion of India.

Those of us who watched with trepidation the events and moves of last week inevitably felt that we could not start our discussions of the most important matters that are in the Gracious Speech without some reference to what has happened in the world as a result of the Cuba Crisis, and what possibly can be gained as a result of this experience.

I agree that this Crisis in Cuba, or any other crisis, may well involve the whole world, but I think there is a distinction between a crisis of this sort, which the Americans may say, rightly or wrongly, is largely their business, and a crisis in Europe.

We must recognise, as was shown during the Cuba Crisis, that even now the United Nations has considerable influence for peace and there will be a greater potentiality for exploiting and developing that in the future.

Of course, we shall agree that we must do our best as far as possible not to unbalance the military situation in the process and disarmament, but in the light of the Cuba Crisis and how close we got to the abyss, when we look at the negotiations and the two draft treaties I think some of the differences- not all of them, but some of them - look a little academic.

Perhaps, as many hon. and right hon. Gentlemen have said, the most hopeful aspect of the Crisis in Cuba is that it may have given a new stimulus to the Russians and to the West to try to end the tensions in our relations and to find just and lasting settlements in the many areas of dispute between us.

As I said at the beginning of my speech, it is in this field that the Cuba Crisis has underlined most sharply the need for progress and, at the same time, offered, perhaps, the best opportunities for a new step forward.

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what civil defence plans were available at the time of the Recent Cuba Crisis; which of these were operated; and what plans Her Majesty's Government have to protect key members of the Government or certain workers in essential industries which do not apply to the general population.

It is, I think, difficult to conceive of a graver emergency, short of actual war, than the one we experienced at the time of the Cuba Crisis, and other members of the Government certainly seem to have thought that we were within measurable distance of such a disaster.

Does the Prime Minister recall that a few days after the Cuba Crisis he assured the House that he had an understanding with the United States President that he would be consulted at any time if there was any question of nuclear weapons being used?

Is not this a very big letdown for us, particularly following upon the significant rôle of the bomber force of the Royal Air Force at the time of the Cuba Crisis in support of the United States of America?

I make no apology for reminding the House again of the, to many of us, fearsome comment of The TimesWashington correspondent at the height of the Cuba Crisis, when he said:President Kennedy has dramatically emphasised his determination to act alone to defend United States and allied interests, wherever they may be threatened.

But I want to be fair to the Foreign Secretary and I wish we had him here to be fair to, because when he went ontelevision at the time of the Cuba Crisis last year he paid a most moving tribute to Mr. U Thant and the United Nations for the part they had played in bringing about a settlement of the Cuba question.

Mr. Driberg asked the Prime Minister what steps he took during the Cuba Crisis to alert Thor rocket bases and V-bomber crews in preparation for nuclear war: and why official denials that any such action had been taken were issued at the time in response to Press inquiries.

asked the Prime Minister what steps he took during the Cuba Crisis to alert Thor rocket bases and V-bomber crews in preparation for nuclear war: and why official denials that any such action had been taken were issued at the time in response to Press inquiries.

asked the Prime Minister whether there was a full airborne alert of the British strategic bomber force at the time of the 'Cuba Crisis; and what steps Her Majesty's Government are taking in concert with their allies to develop more effective joint planning and control of the nuclear weapons used by the alliance, so that the allies may share with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in major foreign policy and defence decisions.

Briefly, I refer the hon. and learned Member for Northampton (Mr. Paget) to the record of that debate in which he will find answered in some detailmost of the points he made about the state of readiness at the time of the Cuba Crisis.

I do not mind admitting that this was a question which gave us very anxious thought at the time when this booklet was being prepared - which was before the Cuba Crisis, so it was not in any way influenced by the Cuba crisis.

Mr. Dean Rusk said in November that the real lesson of the Cuba Crisis was that nuclear war is a possibility which may happen to us at any time.

It is thus clear that at the time of the Cuba Crisis Ivanov was using all the methods at his disposal to try to persuade the British Government to take some initiative.

On my files being searched, I found that he had written to me last November, as had hundreds of others, during the time of the Cuba Crisis.

I have told the House of the first statement on 26th January, when she said she was asked to obtain information at the time of the Cuba Crisis last October.

We know from what my right hon. Friend said earlier today, which is not disputed, about the letters that were being sent around at the time of the Cuba Crisis.

On that last occasion we were able to review the Crisis in Cuba.

As I look at this, it seems that the Cuba Crisis was really the turning point.

The alternative so far put up by the Opposition to meet this new situation with which we have been confronted since the Cuba Crisis is, although less dishonest, just as unreal as the policy of the Government.

I think that one of the things about the Cuba Crisis was that, paradoxically, it drew Khrushchev and Kennedy rather closer together.

Two weeks ago the Prime Minister told us that the week of the Cuba Crisis was the week of the most strain that he could remember in all his life.

I have an example of this quoted in a letter from somebody who was arrested in the Cuba Crisis demonstrations last autumn.

Nevertheless, a number of cases have been brought to my attention and to the attention of other hon. Members as a result of recent political demonstrations, both at the time of the Cuba Crisis, last autumn, and two weeks ago, in London.

The case of Mr. Ivanov and his efforts during the Cuba Crisis showed in a most vivid way the extraordinary misjudgments of which the Communist representatives here in London are capable.

I felt this year that the Cuba Crisis, during which I was in America last year, had brought American people, as I believe it brought the Russians, to face the grim reality, as never before, that a third world war is so horrible as to be unthinkable and that both sides must reach out to take advantage of the easement of tension in East-West relations.

In passing, in reply to the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Smethwick in relation to Cuba, I should say that I was very close to my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley (Mr. H. Macmillan) throughout these discussions, and I think that the right hon. Gentleman gravely underestimates our influence and contact during the course of the Cuba Crisis.

Several days warning of the possibility of war such as we would have had, for instance, during the Cuba Crisis, had it been necessary to take these measures.

I know that at one time Christine Keeler mentioned the Cuba Crisis.

I invite the hon. Member to refer to our debate in the October following the Cuba Crisis.

In looking back on the Cuba Crisis, is it not obvious that the Americans were able to have their way because they had local superiority of conventional weapons?

We have a naval deterrent and I was pointing out that, although the Americans had such a deterrent in the Cuba Crisis, they did not win by it - for there was nuclear stalemate between Russia and the United States - but won because they had local superiority in conventional weapons.

On the second point of a United Nations force, the hon. Member for Renfrew, West (Mr. Buchan), to whose speech I listened with great interest and much sympathy, underestimated the United Nations activities at the time of the Cuba Crisis.

Had we been consulted at the time of the Cuba Crisis I might have subscribed to that view, but the hon. Gentleman knows that we were not asked.

In the Cuba Crisis of 1962, how real and terrible that risk was.

In 1962, at the time of the Cuba Crisis, the hon. Lady said:Britain should make it clear that we were not willing to be militarily committed on the side of America whatever happened in Cuba.

I would remind them that at the time of the Cuba Crisis in 1962 many people were asking, "What is the evidence for the proposition that the Russians, as the Americans claim, are installing missile bases in Cuba directed against the United States"?

] My mind goes back to the days of October, 1962, when the Cuba Crisis hit the world.

less aggressive, partly for reasons of a large sense of shock when they met the glint of American steel at the time of the Cuba Crisis, partly because of the effectiveness of N.A.T.O.

There have been a number of major changes which could account, for the moment at any rate, for the less aggressive Soviet policy in Europe; less aggressive, partly for reasons of a large sense of shock when they met the glint of American steel at the time of the Cuba Crisis, partly because of the effectiveness of N.A.T.O.

Of course, what he meant was that in his opinion - he was not stating it in these words, but we could deduce it - the escalation of the war by the United States, the bombing of Haiphong and Hanoi and other forms of escalation which had taken place, the more intensive bombing, had led to a situation in which the Soviet Government were faced with the most difficult choice that any Government have had to face since the Cuba Crisis in considering how to react to that situation.

I remember the Cuba Crisis, when the United States could have crushed Cuba in a week.

In the Cuba Crisis - which is best summed up in the book, "Missiles of October", which is about all that private Members have access to - I am sure that the United States did its utmost to consult its allies: but what is the present position on the phrase used in the White Paper, "remain continuously in communication", to allow reasonable consultation in responsibility on the top-level crisis which might occur in Europe?

It is not very long since the Cuba Crisis.

Does the right hon. Gentleman recollect the Home Secretary's view earlier in the year that the Cuba Crisis blew up very quickly and it was possible to form a judgment, but that other crises will take longer to develop?

If we get the sort of condition which existed in 1711, one of the reasons why the rebellion of 1715 may have been carried out by dissident Scottish lords who did not get on to the payroll, a condition where, as the hon. Member for Ebbw Vale said, there is a situation - and it does not need much imagination to consider it - such as there was at the time of the Cuba Crisis, at a time when perhaps the bonds of patronage are strained, especially if they are not to be paid it will be difficult to keep these people in check.

Before my right hon. Friend continues on the Cuba Crisis, will he tell us what brought pressure to bear on Russia at that time?

Yes, that was so for some time in the 1940s and also for a brief period at the time of the Cuba Crisis; but, by and large, it has amounted to nearly £40 million a year, although part of that aid has, admittedly, gone to the fully developed country of Australia.

There were times, for instance, in the Cuba Crisis, when the world price of sugar was doubled, yet we still got it from the Commonwealth at the agreed price.

Many hon. Members will remember the Cuba Crisis.

the year of the Cuba Crisis, or the year of the rape of Czechoslovakia.

In some years we tended to put a label on them; the year of the Cuba Crisis, or the year of the rape of Czechoslovakia.

In 1962, during the Cuba Crisis, there was a conflict which was entirely confined to the sea.

I do not think that the consequences of that delusion, a nationwide delusion held and expressed by Americans of every class and creed, can be better expressed than it was- significantly over 20 years ago-by the Washington correspondent of The Times during the Cuba Crisis.

That was still all right at that time because the United States still had quite massive superiority, as it did at the time of the Cuba Crisis.

Hoare-Laval and Suez have been mentioned today and even the Cuba Crisis was cited by the right hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr. Heath).