FIRST DRAFT
Draft for a speech on "World Security Problems" to be delivered by the Minister of State, The Rt. Hon. The Lord Shepherd, to members of the 1969 Spring Visit of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association at Westminster Hall on Thursday, 27th March, 1969
I much hope that you are enjoying your stay in this
country. It is always a pleasure for those of us whose
Parliamentary duties are carried on here to be able to
welcome to Britain fellow legislators from the other
Commonwealth countries.
We benefit greatly from the
opportunity to hear from you how problems which we all face
look when viewed from your home countries. Now that the
Commonwealth's 28 member states cover the whole world,
include all races and religions and embrace rich and poor,
aligned and non-aligned states, we have even more to learn
from one another than used to be the case, when a much
smaller Commonwealth was much more homogeneous. And being
now a true microcosm of the non-Communist world, comprising
a quarter of the whole world, any conclusions we may reach
should be of important significance to others as well as to
us.
2. We have here today, I understand visiting representa-
tives of 12 member countries of the Commonwealth, and from
three territories not yet handling their external affairs
and defence. Of the 15 countries represented 5 are in
Africa, 4 in North America and the Caribbean, 3 in Asia,
2 in Australasia and 1 in Europe. I can therefore
/understand