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TRAE LANE Neko ORE CUETO AE Capit ct ge PRP ge 8 oa eR Odette core: shearer tetera: « Me MEA aE RE tig A ante outa Fe ee a acne ee AO MMR I EE SR ee ee © ~ -a 7 NOVEMBER 1955 Officials—Jisappearance 1536 0 Indeed, as a Labour back bencher who 29s Former Foreign Office Jaid down by the Prime Minister of at day in 1948? It is much more im- ortant to probe these things than to thase individuals in the security depart- ent. , [Ther is, however, one thing that Par- ament can and should do, and I think fat this debate will bring it ov! more tlearly than before. There should be hufficient moncy and staff for the security services to do their jobs properly. J be- Jieve that they have been starved of these things. The worst thing that could hap- pen would be for the Burgess-Maclcan incident —I_ call it no more—to develop nto a party wrangle. I see no signs of hat happening and I am quite convinced Yhat the House would not lowes itself by doing it on such a vitally important poattet for the country. a Parliament's duty is to ensure that such ‘a thing cannot happen again. After all, iit is a truism, but it is quite true fo say, that what has happened has happened ; ‘but that is no reason why those who have ‘been proved incompetent should be em- ployed in high office any Jonger. What this House wants—and, I believe, the ‘country as well—is reassurance and evi- dence that such things cannot occur again reasonably. It is no good saying that something is wilerly impossible, but we ‘want to be reasonably gure that that can- not happen again. ; J doubt whether, so Jong as the men who were responsible for security at that | time remain in high positions, the con- fidence of the country will be maintained. Let us, however, keep our consideration of the matter on the bigh fevel at which it has started, I beg the House with great humility, for it is not a matter for party ‘ wrangling, is not a matier of personali- _ ties, but a matter of the national interest , and of the best possible safeguarding of 1 our beloved county... one Be ial. Mr. R. WS. Crossman (Coventry. East): 1 shall try, in saving what 1 have } to say, to keep the debate on the high : level that the hon. and gallant Gentleman j the Member for Perth and East Perth- } shiré (Colonci Gomine-Duncan) has set H for us back benchers in following those - two excellent speeches from the Front Benches, the speech of the Foreign Secretary and the speech of my right bon. © Friend the Member for Lewisham, South (Mr. H. Morrison. > ot ee? 410 41 2 a . ’ “os - ’ a AM el ne re iy ee tee eae nd , : “% voy , woe: has from time to time criticised the - Foreign Secretary, and the Prime Minis- —. ter, too, I should like to congratulate the ~ Foreign Secretary, for the second half of his speech, which dealt with the tremen- dous problem of the combination of free. dom and public security in a world of clashing ideologies, was a classic state- a. ae Er SN. ERLE TY ORL DEC WTR WOES bee et ace vm he. sale Zin. 7 - . on aa 7 é at Wee -« mont ines ment of principle which we can all, hope, agree upon and accept. lk can do principle was made. However, the first all of the right bon. Gentleman’s speech °~ was a completely unsuccessful effort to explain away his own White Paper, and that is something which we must discuss, 1 think it is rather futile to waste owr ~ time holding an inquest on Burgess and Maclean. What we ought to consider dada a the leseane wae wan lea tie {OG4ay are ine 155005 We Can scar for the future from that Jamentable incident. “I - © shall try to confine most of my remarks to that problem. but 1 think that in this debate we are faced with two opposite difficulties. Certainly, there is # danger that we shall encourage witch hunting, ~~ and, goodness knows, at one part of the Foreign Secretary's speech I was slightly afraid. That was when he said that we had 10 consider our allies in what we did. I hope he did not mean that he thought our allies, the Americans, bad been more successful in dealing with these problems than we have, --- | + wel ed > [am sure he did not mean it, because if we have shown a degree of lassitude they have shown an extreme in loyalty . : fests which, 1 think, has done more © damage to their fiberties and to the strength of America in the world than “- Burgess and Maclean have done to ws, Ln aha Conta rote ret, LiL Ar nN. ant iT) - SUTRA VW GUE OIG EPL paige aU WE! the panic eflorts to impose loyally there by elaborate code! Think of the effect of the fecling that officials could not risk writing what they really meant in their - =: diplomatic messages for fear of being read aloud at a Congressional inquiry. -22. That is an object lesson of the dangers of extreme panic about security. at ' But there is another side to this." We must se¢ that the cause of McCarthyism was noi $0 much the effect of the feat of espionage as the popular suspicion, that for political reasons either politicians or high officials were covering up the signs of people in privileged places. Indsed, I believe that if the Truman Administra- tion had gone into matters thoroughly and - ow oe s MO. nothing but good that that statement of _. - tae ie Feed ie ieee