◆ SpookStack

_2STL Former Foreign Office {Of course nobody who knows anything ’ about this subject imagines that such a » watch is kept by the village policeman ‘ doffing his uniform and” putting on @ * Dowler hat and a tweed suit above his j uniform boots and following somebody down a country lane. There are other + methods, and the fact that apparently no ‘ watch of any kind was placed on 4 , he escaped is nothing short of shameful. + — The right hon. Gentleman the Mem- ber for Lewisham, South (Mr. H. Morrison) agreed to the interrogation on that Friday morning of 25th May. Maclean has asked for and obtained leave for the following Saturday morning. Therefore he was not due in the Foreign Office between the Friday evening and the Monday morning. Whatever may have been the reason why he went when the did, whether it had been asranged 1 Jong before or suddenly we do not yet | know, but it must have been obvious to our security authorities and those in charge that this week-end was the danger period. Yet, as I said, not a sicp was taken to keep any surveillance on him throughout that period. 4 -- 0 6; emus 1 bas been said once or twice in this debate that the chief value of a secret service is that it should be secret. Un- fortunately that excellent maxim has been $0 consistently flouted since the war by amateur authors cashing in on their ex- Periences and breaking into print as a Tesult of two or three years’ temporary service in one of our great Services in wartime that we can well afford a slight” tisk of Joss of secrecy once more in & good cause, The cause J am suggesting 3 an inquiry into our security service. -° “1 do not feel that whitewashing will Satisfy the people of this country about this case. Their faith in our security service has been sadly shaken, and it must be our first resolve to try to restore it at all costs, The same thing applies to their faith in our Foreign Service. My hon. Friend the Member for Farnham (Mr, Nicholson) said that the public confidence had been a little shaken for the first time by this case. ‘That was a triumph of understatement in view of what people are a king. |, Cpe ad aot gt tye Our Foreign Service has always re- ceived the criticism from which, to a large extent, our security service bas been free. Ut has been accused of being too much uD re eo 7 NOVEMBER 1955 a 1578, Maclean during the week end in which” * Colonel Cordeaux). I hope that there will, Spam a te eee rt Cone nl . divorced from reality, of having too many feceptions and cocktail parties, of being” staffed by too many old school tics. Yeti even ils more severe critics in their wildest moment have never before this case suge, - gested that it harboured traitors, and now’ People know that it did and they believe.~--+~ that it still may do so. . a par * The only way in which we can be fairly sure of reassuring the people of this- country, both as regards the efficiency off our security arrangements and about what. has happened in this case. is 10 appoint a” commitice of inquiry. I would suggest that it should be a committee formed of, the judicial members of the Privy Council, , sitting in secret and reporting to the Prime, Minister. That would go far to reassure, our people who deserve reassurance. ‘Therefore most earnestly I ask my right, hon. Friend to reconsider the decision that. it is not necessary to hold any such: inquiry. ... Y jeut.-Colonel Marcus ton): [I find myself in cordial agreement. with the hon. and gaSlant Gentleman the; _ Member for Nottingham. Central (1ieat.-- be a judicial inquiry afong the lines he. : advocated and mentioned by my right, --.. hon, Friend the Member for Lewisham,; South (Mr. H. Morrison) earlier in the, debate. This debate will be a sham .--- exercise unless it is followed by such an inquiry.:.. pity € bora 1 bre bbe We want an inquiry ‘into the recruit - ment and staffing of the Forcign Office,’ ‘We also want an inquiry into the efficiency? of our Security Service. Those should. be two separate and distinct inquiries. It) -*~ may be found necessary to have a differsi ent form of inquiry in each case since exactly the same security considerations: do not apply to an investigation into the staffing and recruitment of the Forcign* Office as would obviously and necessarily? apply to an examination of our Secret. Service. Unless there is an inquiry people? ““"**~ F° will remain profoundly dissatisfied with; ... the official pronouncement made on the; ~ subject by the sight bon. Gentleman they... Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. I will not go as far back as did the hon. and gallant Member for Nottingham, Central. . I will only go back to 1951, Jn the light of what the Secretary of, State for Foreign Affairs said today, 1 Pee Tm ga ee y