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: Political ‘Commentary nS . By HENRY FAIRLIE‘; 4 T= who—like that admirable Cassandra of demo-! ‘, gE fp cracy, Mr. Christopher Hollis—cluim that Parliament nowadays does very litle that is useful should reflect ‘on what “would have. happened -this week if the House. of > Commons bad been sitting. Qa Monday either the, Prime. : “Minister or the Foreign Secretary would have had to answer) , & private-notice question ubout the Maclean-Burgess affair. \ Their answers would almost certainly have been’ unsatistac-} * tory, aod some Member would bave moved the adjournment) " of the House on @ definite matter of urgent public importance. ‘ : The Speaker, would have had no alternative bat to accept} the motion—clearly the Foreign Office's admission that Mac) ' Jean and Burgess were Sovict agents is both a ‘definite’ matter | ,, thd one of ‘urgent public importance,’ and it would have been) * raised at the curliest possible moment (another qualification; which has to_be fulfilled if the adjournment of the House isi “to be moved). He would then have asked if forty Mem w+, bees were prepared to sapport the motion for the adjournment, wand there can be no doubt that forty members would have) fe “risen in their places. Consequently, at 7.30 that evening the). ‘Hause would have interrupted its normal proceedings and). g debated the remarkable statement which the Forciga Office, P had made to the press the day before, The result might have been as Jarportant as the result of the adjournment debate on’ |, the Savidge case in 1929, which led to an inquiry into poli ! ers. ie Government “has “escaped this “sort ‘of immedi ‘Scgrching inquiry, which can be conducted only by the Hot ! % off ‘ommons, aad which the House does, in fact, conduct vety: or Reyer 3-44 (4 NOT Lo EEORDED 126 NOV 15 1955 commence ean seers eR RE: MaHEAN CASE _ (oe . seo nana C ECTA’ No. 6639) , . “ Pare SEPTEMBER 23, 1955 ~ : DELETED COPY SEN " LONDON, ENGLAND BY LETTER JUN 22 1975 FER FTA EQ) RRS LSS Tay