§ Mr. LANSBURY (by Private Notice)asked the Prime Minister whether he has any statement to make with respect to the Disarmament Conference?
§ The PRIME MINISTERMy right hon. Friend has no doubt seen a statement which the Government issued to the Press on Friday evening. I have nothing which I can usefully add thereto. The Foreign Secretary and I intend to proceed to Geneva as soon as can be conveniently arranged.
§ Mr. LANSBURYI should like to raise a question regarding the Privileges of this House. It is usual when Parliament is sitting, and the Government have an important statement to make, that such statement should be made in the House of Commons. There was plenty of time on Friday after the Cabinet meeting, which I understood took place, for the Government to have arranged for a, statement to be made in the House. If they did not want to make an arrangement with the Opposition, it could have been arranged through the Patronage Secretary for one of their own Members to put a question at the close of business on Friday. I think it is a very grave departure that Members of this 821 House, over the week-end, should have to get information from the newspapers, which is not always accurate.
§ The PRIME MINISTERI agree that newspaper information is not always accurate, but when it is given by the Government, it is. With reference to the further part of the question, there was no policy to announce, and there was no policy announced in the newspapers on Friday. As a matter of fact, it was not possible to make an announcement in the House before it rose on Friday.
§ Mr. LANSBURYI am sorry to disagree with the right hon. Gentleman, but I am under the impression that I read the news on the tape before I left the House on Friday.
§ Sir J. SIMONindicated dissent.
§ Mr. LANSBURYThe Foreign Secretary shakes his head. I must put my own memory against his. I wish to emphasise the fact that there is a growing habit on the part of the Government to give the country information through the newspapers, instead of on the Floor of this House. We ought to have been able to ask questions on the statement. I should like to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he is going to Geneva without giving the House any information, clear and definite, as to why he and the Foreign Secretary are called upon at a moment's notice to go; and what proposals he intends to make to the Disarmament Conference? Surely this House is as much entitled to know as anybody?
§ The PRIME MINISTERNo question of policy was raised in the statement, and I can assure the right hon. Gentleman that, as a matter of fact, the time was such that under the Rules of this House it was impossible before four o'clock for myself or anybody else to come from the place where we were sitting and announce that we were going to Geneva. The business of the House has to be suspended, there is no Motion for the Adjournment on Fridays, Mr. Speaker leaves the Chair, and the time at our disposal was inadequate to make arrangements for any such announcement on Friday afternoon. I am giving that information to the House to show that no discourtesy was meant and that the point was not overlooked. As a matter of fact, the nature 822 of the decision that we should go to Geneva was not a decision in regard to policy and, therefore, does not come under a question of courtesy.
§ Mr. LANSBURYI hope the Prime Minister will kindly give me his attention. He is quite mistaken in saying that it is anything unusual for the Government to come to the House of Commons and ask to be allowed to make an important statement on a Friday afternoon. The Lord President of the Council did so last Session, I forget the exact occasion, but I think it was in connection with the Lausanne Agreement. Arrangements were specially made for this to be done on a Friday afternoon, and, if the Lord President of the Council can do so, the right hon. Gentleman can; and to say that it could not be done because of the Rules of the House is sheer nonsense and is playing with the House. I repeat; the House was treated extremely badly last Friday in not having the statement made to it instead of publishing it in the Press.
§ Mr. MAXTONFurther in regard to the question that has been put, not merely the question of procedure: can the Prime Minister now tell the House when he and the Foreign Secretary are going to Geneva; how long they are going to be away; and are they going for the general purposes of the Disarmament Conference or in connection with the more limited question of the Chinese-Japanese embargo, which the Foreign Secretary said would be dealt with? Further, does the Prime Minister think that to go to the Disarmament' Conference is the most important work that our Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary can do at the present time?
§ The PRIME MINISTERAt the moment we think it is a piece of work so important that it should be done. Our purpose in going to Geneva is to try and get some sort of agreement as to how the Disarmament Conference can do its business in the best way at the moment. There is no new policy. We are going to try and use whatever influence we may have to get the Disarmament Conference to a point when an agreement although not reached is well within sight.
§ Mr. LANSBURYBut the right hon. Gentleman is going to Geneva without the House of Commons knowing all the facts which have compelled the Government to 823 take the extraordinary step of sending the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary to the Disarmament Conference, without the House having any opportunity of discussing the matter. Surely this House has a right to know?
§ The PRIME MINISTERThe right hon. Gentleman seems to forget that both the Foreign Secretary and I have been to Geneva on Disarmament business again and again. Moreover, the list of British delegates, published when the Disarmament Conference started its work, included both the Foreign Secretary and myself. We are technically at Geneva now.
§ Mr. LANSBURYThe majority of the House of Commons may accept that statement, but I say that it is playing with the House of Commons for the Prime Minister not to make a full and complete statement of what the Under-Secretary of State came back and told him, and which has caused the Government to take this hasty decision.