That being the position - as I have always said was the fact - in regard to the British Fleet, I cannot for the life of me understand all the excuses made during the Ethiopian Crisis and during the operation of sanctions about the presumed weakness of the British Fleet in the Mediterranean, the loud grumbling at arrangements to deal with the declared aggressor- and therefore the subsequent accumulation of the power, and the desire of the aggressor to go still further - and now the plea to this country and to this House for power to proceed with an unlimited programme of rearmament, without any hope at all, in my judgment, of this country being able to maintain thereby, of itself, the whole defence of the British Empire as referred to in the Gracious Speech.

That is not what is needed in response to the Ethiopian Crisis.

That spells the Ethiopian Crisis 10 or more times over.

I do not want to minimise what has been done for the Ethiopian Crisis by the ODA special committee, which has done remarkably well, nor by the rapid use of the £5 million to stem some of the initial problems.

We have learned from a strange admission to the Public Account Committee that my right hon. Friend's budget for dealing with the Ethiopian Crisis by emergency relief and food aid was £50 million.

I am delighted to follow the hon. Member for Greenwich (Mr. Barnett) and, in particular, to be able to express my admiration and gratitude to the work of Christian Aid in the Ethiopian Crisis.

Have not the Government given the lead to the international community in their response to the Ethiopian Crisis, and is it not also true that if the Ethiopian Government had used their resources as effectively as they might have done at the beginning the problem would not be as great as it is now?

In 1984–85, at the height of the Ethiopian Crisis, we were putting £45 million into emergency aid.

There is a lack of clarity in the Government's response to the Ethiopian Crisis and to countries in conflict generally.