HC Deb 13 December 1939 vol 355 cc1188-9
37. Mr. Marcus Samuel

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Information whether he take immediate steps to deny arid disprove the falsehoods contained in the German broadcast, in which it was stated that the services of a young Indian, educated in this country, were hired by the British Intelligence Service, that he was offered £150,000 to assassinate Mustapha Kemal, and that he was caught as a spy, tried, and sentenced to death?

Sir E. Grigg

My attention has been called to this story, which was broadcast from Germany last week. I do not think it would be desirable to give to mendacious inventions of this kind the dignity of a formal denial.

Mr. Samuel

Is there any truth in the suggestion that the German broadcaster known as Lord Hee-Haw—[HoN. MEMBERS: "Haw-Haw."]—of Zeesen is being paid by the British Government to broadcast fantastic and demonstrably untrue assertions, so as to bring the Nazi Government and propaganda machine into ridicule and disrepute?