§ 36. Viscount CURZONasked the Prime Minister whether any estimate can be given of the annual cost to this country of the Mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine, respectively?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Mr. Churchill)The responsibility for expenditure in Mesopotamia and Palestine is about to be transferred from the Departments hitherto dealing with these countries to the Colonial Office. It is clearly impossible for me to give an estimate of the annual cost involved in the acceptance of the Mandates until I have had an oppor- 540 tunity of scrutinising the existing estimates and consulting the local authorities. I shall lose no time in doing this. The Cabinet have decided that Conferences shall be held in Egypt and Palestine in the early part of March, at which I shall meet Sir Percy Cox, General Haldane, and certain other officials connected with the administration of Mesopotamia. I shall also take the opportunity of seeing other officers and officials now concerned with British interests in the Arabian Peninsula.
I hope that a systematic and detailed review of the whole position may enable me to submit definite recommendations for action to the Cabinet, and that I shall then be placed in a position to make a full statement to the House after the Easter Adjournment. The occasion of such a statement will no doubt be the assumption by the Colonial Office of the whole of the expense thrown upon the British Exchequer in the forthcoming Estimates on account of the Middle Eastern Territories for which we have accepted Mandates, and the presentation of an Estimate such as my hon. and gallant Friend desires to the House of Commons. The setting up of a Vote of this kind, for which a particular Minister accepts responsibility, is the surest means of securing effective Parliamentary control over the heavy expenditure. The accounts of the War Office and of the Foreign Office and the Air Ministry will subsequently be credited accordingly. If the House approves generally of this method of procedure, I will ask them to permit me to reserve as far as possible any statement until I have had an opportunity of personally consulting the men on the spot.
§ Viscount CURZONDocs not the Leader of the House think that the answer we have just hoard amounts to the same thing as giving the right hon. Gentleman a blank cheque for Mesopotamia? Does he not think that this ought to come before the House of Commons?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWThere is no question of a blank cheque. The work will be conducted by one Department of the Government instead of another, and I think my right hon. Friend is right in saying that there is great advantage in having one Department responsible for making Estimates.
§ Mr. LAMBERTMay I ask the Leader of the House whether an Estimate for the expenditure on Mesopotamia and Palestine will be submitted to the House of Commons, and that no new permanent commitments will be entered into until the House has endorsed such Estimates?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWMy right hon. Friend stated distinctly that an Estimate will be presented. We are at present administering the country, and, obviously, we cannot refrain from doing what is necessary until the House has passed the Estimates.
§ Mr. LAMBERTI asked whether any permanent commitments—of course, day to day commitments must be liquidated— will be postponed until after the House of Commons has had opportunity of examining the proposition?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWThe whole tenor of my right hon. Friend's statement was to show that the object is to have a complete examination in order to avoid further commitments to expenditure until we have examined it and until the House has sanctioned it.
§ Sir E. CARSONIs there any power in the Treaty for a country that has been given a mandate to give it up?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWNo such power is clearly stated in the Treaty, but it is obvious that if a country refused to exercise a mandate it must have some means of giving effect to its refusal.
Sir J. D. REESDocs the Government thoroughly appreciate that the more scientific and the more reforming the Meso-potamian administration is the more it will cost the British taxpayer and the more the Mesopotamians will dislike it?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWThat is a general statement of opinion which I cannot indorse.
§ Lieut. - Commander KENWORTHYDoes not the right hon. Gentleman think it a very important matter to transfer a mandate from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office, and shall we have an opportunity of debating the whole question?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWThere will be the usual opportunity, but there is no question of transferring mandates to the Colonial Office or any other Department. 542 It is the Government which has the mandate.
Lieut.-Colonel MURRAYWill it be possible to discuss this only on the Colonial Office Estimates, and as foreign policy is intimately concerned in this matter what will be the liaison between the Foreign Office and the Colonial Office? Should not it be possible also to discuss it on the Foreign Office Estimates?
§ Lieut. - Commander KENWORTHYDoes not the right hon. Gentleman think it contrary to the whole spirit of the mandates to put it under the administration of the Colonial Office?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWI do not see any point in that remark at all. The mandate is given to a nation. What Department exercises it is for the nation to decide. There may be some point in what my hon. and gallant Friend (Lieut.-Colonel A. Murray) suggests, that the title Colonial Office is not a suitable one for the Department exercising the office. That is being considered by the Government
§ Mr. CHURCHILLI do not think that there will be any difficulty in the matter. I am entirely in the hands of the House. I should be glad of an opportunity of discussing the matter. So far as I am concerned I will facilitate any debate that may be brought on under the regular rules of Parliamentary procedure. I do not think that there is any difficulty in discussing the matter of a single office puts down a Vote for the whole field of expenditure. At present the House is quite unable to obtain a clear idea of what is the total cost involved. I agree entirely with the hon. Member opposite in thinking that there should be one Vote showing clearly what we are paying which can be criticised and scrutinised by the House of Commons and put forward on the authority of some individual Minister who takes full responsibility for defending the policy of the Government. I should have thought that that would be a great gain.