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PRE ORE NTA ag ne PL sew nae oe Sen one ER Com oaie ston ce eae ete ee es ce nen nants ‘ascism, Nazism, Communism and other Aotalitarian methods of government have tproduced. It is hard for us 10 conceive jot a son betraying his father or a father denouncing his own children. We cannot imagine a state of mind which regards ‘spying as a virtue and treachery as 8 yduty. We have to read again the prob- sbems that confronted the Elizabethan jstatesmen, Burghley and Walsingham, ywhen the Secret Service first developed, qwhen espionage and counter-espionage, , plot and counter-plot were inseparable fom international polition. « »: - “3 }__This brings us up directly aga’ pew problem. It is really that of public i security in a free society during a period , of intense ideological warfare. We could, , Of course, reintroduce some methods and take again some powers which we abap- " doned long ago and we hoped had gone for ever. Even in a modified form these ; would have been very helpful in dealing with the case which I have had to out- , tine to the House today. The story might ! easily have been unravelled if less regard had been had to the law. s.., Here, may I say that T was struck by a criticism which appeared recently in one of the popular papers. Why, asked this critic, was Mrs. Maclean not pre- vented from leaving England. This és what it said. I quote from the article: “. .. the authorities said Shey would have bad no legal power to stop ber. There is 0 law for this” | 4477 Then it goes on:: --- + “Could not they bave found one’ There we have the very nub of the prob- Tem. Could not they—that is, the authorities—have found one? Hitler ‘would have. found -one, of “course. Mussolini would have found one. Stalin had got one. : aoa - ~ Jn time of war wi ere forced to find new measures to control the rights of the individual, but they were never very much liked here, and I do not suppose that there was any product of war more distasteful to those who had to operate t them or to the general public than the powers under Regulation 18B.. Jn recent years, however, the question of treachery, | Particularly treachery inspired not Motives of personal gain but by misplaced | ideological convictions, has loomed much Jarger in our national life than at almost any time in our Jong history; and nowa- i days it is not only the bureaucracy who t nen S08 - Former Foreign Office” 7 NOVEMBER 1955 ons Darpeasd 1510 are the holders of our national seciets. Fo htt I A to el a Perhaps even more secrets are in the |....-,- hands: of large sections of industry and of the scientific worldiww..27 warts aed With this extension of the problem we are brought face to face with the funda- mental question of liberty. How can the interests of security be maintained with- * out damage to our traditional liberties? At what point do reasonable and neces- _Sary security measures become the repug- --~. Mant attributes of the police State? short, how do we, in modern times, - achieve good security in a democratic society? yn aes ae Taskers The review which I bave given of the security measures taken in recent years will, 1 bope, convince the House that everything that it is possible to do under -existing law—or everything that we can” see—has been done to protect us against treason and subversion by Government servants, or by others, who have secret material. To the extent that security — practices can be improved under existing ~ ws every effort has been made to achieve it, and I believe that these measures make the recurrence of an affair such as this exceedingly improbable—I do not say that they make it impossible. .. - ae +” T repeat, however, that these measures do not, and in my view cannot, go beyond ithe letter and the spirit of the law. At any rate, before the limitations of the --- existing law were selaxed, were it no more than this, I think that Parliament would have to weigh very carefully the balance of advantage and disadvantage, for it would, indeed, be a tragedy if we destroyed our freedom in the effort to Preserve it. io Pe eka an 440 pant! cere Dl y Mr, Herbert Morrison (Lewisham, South): Mr. Deputy-S, kes before i ‘Proceed with my 5) . aps permitted to say beyond the bounds ‘of order for a few moments to refer to « the deeply regretted death of my right, hon. Friend William Whiteley, Mem! for Blaydon. He was respected in all quarters of the House. [Hon. MEMBERS:_ “Hear, -bear."] - He was a ‘very fine Member of Parliament, a man of the most upright character, and I would say, - having seen a good many Chief Whips ~and J think that the Government Chief Whip will agree—that William Whiteley ~ will stand out as one of the great Chief > ~- Comm Whips in the House of se metemeinesssekerenpmens amend ¥. 7 vr ~T ea — weap on eat ae oe ee 4