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Be Teh owas ad 1505 rome Sion Office 7 NOVEMBER 1955 Offciats, responsibility for the security and personal and held that office, if Y remember rightly, Teliability of the staffs serving under for five years, He was certainly not TTF. them, and instructions i in this man to be unduly impressed by the out- sense. * - cee Maré semblance of things; he ae 7 - as - ie inner core. He was not a defen 1 Mr, R. HLS. Crossinan (Coventry. of privilege, and, at the same time, was °“:- _East): May I ask the right hon. Gentle- not a man to yield to ejudice. It fell . man one question on vetting? Did he to him to implement the scheme which ~~" ; say that there was no vetting at the had been laid down by the Act of 1943... _ ‘Foreign Office before 1945; that is to “If he had not becn satisfied with it, I am y Say. between 1939 and 1945 officials were gure that in his five years a1 the Foreign ~~ not submitted to political vetting to which — Office he would not have hesitated to other people who came into the Govern- pose some amendment or alicration, | - ment service had to submit? <7: + 3 Actually, he feli for the Foreign Service Mr. Macmi ve ‘ A a loyalty oe en which has beep - pegative ‘kind. It was merely said, Gon Yo which bis name wil always be “Have you got anything against this held at the Foreign Office, : _- man?” and the point of the positive ~ — S Nek as BER ed oe erat nhs. . Ik may be worth emphasising what vetting is diligent research into the pre- fh . ints of the Ed ty vious records. In the old days, we should refer t et tr pont the: e fh en-Bevin ~T have been rather shocked at positive tO/MS. ME may cal m that. First, vetting, but we have had to accept it as the Dinette ere ide eee, Ofce ae and Di; i wit msulag *” one ot the necessities of present con Service and the Commercial Diplomatic nila Bape Oa be meh Oe awe ee Service into a single whole, That was the -—-- 1 want to refer to a point to which I first big point. Secondly, the reorganisa- have seen some allusion made—recruit- tion of the arrangements for recruitment s ment for the Forcign Service. Perhaps and training with a view to opening the © the right hon. Gentleman is to raise the service to anyone with sufficient qualifica- ~ satter, because § saw something in one ons. I ought to udd, for there has beea of the newspapers this morning which much misunderstanding on this point, © made me think that he might intend to that the work of selecting recruits for all | 7 do #0. It is said that recruitment is except the most junior grades of the kept to a closed circle, and that its Service has for a long time been in the >- members are taken too narrowly from hands of the Civil Service Commissioners, one social group. J think I should ‘I want to emphasise this. The Fore remind the House exactly what has hap- Service is not a service renewing itself by _-_.. ned about the Foreign Service. There O-option. Its new members have for Is 80 much going on that it is always 078 time been chosen by an outside body. Sificult to remember, and the public ‘~ It Is sometimes said that the Foreign «= - memory is short... Im sux, Setvice, like the rest t of the Civit service, ot During the wat, my right hon. Friend Sie protected and that there ie no measa > the Prime Minister. then Foreign Secte- Gf getting rid of incompetent or Unsuite tary. gave great though! to the question ‘ghte ple. .¥ would, however, point of the future of the Foreign Service. He Sut’ that since the introduction of the oo ~= Proposed a scheme to his colleagues in Forei in Service Act, 1943, members of -. the Coalition Government on which much she Tore in’Service have not enjoyed the Yabour was spent, and this scheme made e ‘i “a u ‘same degree of security as that of the rest certain radical changes. The scheme was of the Civil Service, for this Act intro. set -out in a White Paper, and certain “guced arrangements more like those ‘af arrangements under it required an Order the fighting Services, which -provide for in Council and a Bill. All this was under fomputsory retirement of ‘established ¢ Coalition Government in 1943. anembers who do not make sufficient prow —<-1-- The Leader of the Opposition, the gress to justify their retention or Pepuy Leader of the Opposition and motion. Fifty-nine officers have been _ Mr. Bevin, who subsequently became retired under this Act in the last ten *~ Foreign Secretary, held high positions in years. The House will also observe that the Coalition Government. After the war, ‘the new scheme for the conduct of the ‘Mr. Bevin succeeded as Foreign Secretary ‘Service and the amalgamation and other Ever ee eae eae athe