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of bath countries. MR, MACMILLAN Jem was discussed with the State Depart, ment in September and they were warncs of our view that Saud! conduct had mad: a continuation of arbitration virtually im- possible. Her Majesty's Government did not give the United States authorities advance information of the decision that the rulers concerned should resume control of the area, lest such foreknowledge should prove embarrassing to them-in’ their sela- tions with Saudi Arab, Besides their interests in Saudi Arabia, American oil companies are substantial shareholders in the companies that hold the concessions fot the Trucial States and for Muscat and Oman. VISITS TO RUSSIA MR. MONTGOMERY HYDE (Belfast, North, U.U.) asked the the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he would make a statement about the increased facilitics which had been granted by the Soviet Go ernment to British tourisis wishing to visit the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. MR. TURTON.—The Soviet State Travel Agency, Intourist, have recently offered a number of planned tours for British visitors to the Soviet U t year, which include concessions on the of travel within the Soviet Union, British travel agencies ate discussing these pro- posals with Intourist. While this is wel- come, there remain many obstacles in the Soviet Union to the would-be private Tourist, particularly the artificial rate of exchange for the rouble. He added that the rate of exchange was being discussed at the Geneva conference. MR. RAYMOND GOWER (Barty, C.) asked the Secretary of State for Foreign ‘Affairs whether he had any further state- ment to make regarding the British-born wives of citizens of Czech an other eastern European wished to visit or return Kingdom. MR. TURTON.—Her Majesty's Govern- ment have noted with satisfaction that since Parliament rose for the recess Jast July a total of 84 British-born women in. satellite countries have been granted permission to travel to this country. Of these, 61 are from Poland, 19 from ‘Czechoslovakia, and two from both Hungary and Rumania. OBSERVERS ON ISRAEL BORDER MORE IF NEEDED MR. ARTHUR Regis and Tipton, Lab.) lary of State for Forci would state the number o Israel and Egy instruct her Maj countries who ign Affairs if, that this number should be increased. MR, MACMILLAN.—The number United Nations observers 5! the Istael-Egypt border is normally 12, whom five are in the Gaza area and in the El Auja area, wil who can be called upon at short notice Another three from the truce supervision, headquarters in_ Jerusalem ; the area. The Minister of State on Novem ber 4 informed the Chief of Staff of th vision organiza: United Nations. truce su tion that her Majesty's Government ‘would support any request he might make fo 1 additional staff if he felt more observer: were required. — o — MR. GODFREY NICHOLSON (Farn- nam, ©.) asked if the observers had an: unctions apatt fram reporting. inci ‘ents when they took place? tring the United Nations into disre1 en the general impression was ide task of tho ©! iddents 7 MR. MACMILLAN ral Burns h said he ble propor: The Buralini puts these two men and ol to_the United. HENDERSON (Rowley asked the Secre- i he {United Nations d along the borders of pt and whether he would jesty's Government's repre- tentative on the Security Council to propose tationed along of ith three in reserve are temporarily detached Organization for service in “Did it not pute that servers was to prevent did not gree. ad done most valu- le work which had reduced to manages tions—until now—what might s events and it was hoped (ilie strange incr jp. ais that surrounded this drama. He had seen a large number of criticisms f the White Paper in the Press and else- where. It had been said that security in the Foreign Office ought to be in the hands of the security service. . Tt was true thay Foreign Office officials. and this was tric in other depariments. were amateurs in the sense that they did not Spend their whole carcers upon this job. Nevertheless, this had % corresponding advantage, for it meant that an increasing number of officers in the service both at home and abri xd some experience Of security work. He was not much attracted by the only} other alternative, that there should be | kind of N.K.V.D. or 0.G.P.U. system in putic offices; in other words that every- high and fow, should be followed by ‘en appropriate officer of department. IMPATIENT CRITICS All through the criticisms which had been made—and he did not complain of them—h fody wherever he went and whatever he id, a police ¢ had felt a sense of impatience 21 fon of a precautionary kind had not becn taken when it might still have been effective. But he thought some of these complaints were based on a misappre- hension of the rights of a citizen in a free society in times of peace. Action against employecs, whet [the Slate or anybody else, from suspicion and not from proof (might be taken with good motives. "It might, avert _ serious consequences ‘or even disasters. But, judging from what had happened in’ some other countries, he suggested that the practice soon degene: Tated into the satisfaction of personal ven- .dettas—{Opposition cheers)-—or a general system of tyranny, all in the name of public_safety. Tt had been said that statements made either by Foreign Office spokesmen or by Ministers during all these years had been disingenuous and obscure. Happily there was very little experience of this sort of thing in Britain, and suc- cessive Ministers had not found it easy to Strike just the right balance between saying too little and saying 10 much, But he was sure they had al! been influenced by one | overriding consideration, ‘The disanpear- ‘ance of the (wo men had opened up a large new field of investigation for the security ervice. These inquiries had wed f ral years, At any stage while they were in progiéss a suggestion of a full statement would have indicated to the world the rea degree to which they were mecting with success, and consequently the investigatior Imight have been itself compromised. When Maclean and Burgess fled in May 1951, the first thought of those respansibic had ‘to be not how much they could te! the public but what they could do to mini ymize the harm that had been done. (Cheers [The security service still, had intensiv inquiries to make, and those would b ‘valuable not merely to reconstruct th y but for other end more essentia urposes; but when Petrov defected o ‘April 3, 1954, a whole new vista openc on_the case. Petrov let it be known that if, a soon as he said anything to the Aus tralian security and intelligence organize tion, it was to be published in this countr he would refuse to say anything more. Thi was an important point. Since it, was esser tial that Petrov should give his evidenc before the royal commission it was decide not to make any further announcement bea ing on his testimony, The commission Teport became public on September 14, an it then became possible to answer questions which had remained unanswered. The Whi Paper was published: nine days after, 1 publication of the royal commission feport. her of arising f 1c Tr 3 y have been seriou: ten taacoatiows to nly,