§ 49. Mr. A. Hendersonasked the Prime Minister whether he will take steps to ensure that official pronouncements containing personal criticisms of Heads of Governments are made at Ministerial level.
§ The Prime MinisterIt is certainly desirable that important statements on behalf of Her Majesty's Government should not be made without proper authority. Ministers are already aware of this.
§ Mr. HendersonWhilst agreeing that a correction of the assertions made by the Soviet leaders in their speeches in India was necessary, is it not most undesirable that a Departmental statement made by an anonymous official should contain personal imputations on the Prime Minister of another country, and are any steps being taken to prevent a recurrence of that?
§ The Prime MinisterThis was an impromptu reply to a question, but, Mr. Speaker, perhaps the official concerned would have been wiser to have asked for notice. Personally, I think it is doubtful whether anyone but Ministers should be asked to make these impromptu replies. That is an aspect of the question which I think we ought now to consider. Even Ministers have sometimes to be careful.
§ Mr. AlportIs my right hon. Friend aware that there are many people who welcome this return to robustness on the part of the Foreign Office?
§ The Prime MinisterI will be very careful not to deal with the merits of the answer at all. It is just a question of whether an official should be put in the position of making an impromptu answer of this kind, and my view is that, on the whole, he should not.
§ Mr. PagetIs it correct that Marshal Bulganin informed an astonished Indian audience that we had sent Hitler's divisions to invade them, and does not that sort of observation call for comment?
§ Mr. SpeakerI do not think that the Prime Minister can be held responsible for what Marshal Bulganin says in India.