HC Deb 12 June 1941 vol 372 cc322-3
41. Sir H. Williams

asked the Home Secretary whether he can furnish the address of the Regional Commissioner for the London Area, having regard to the difficulties in obtaining replies from this department when letters are addressed to a Post Office box number?

Mr. H. Morrison

For reasons of security it would not be in the public interest to publish this address, but I will give it to the hon. Member.

Sir H. Williams

Can I be given any reason why it is more necessary that the Regional Commissioner should have an anonymous address than the Prime Minister and the First Lord of the Admiralty and everybody else; and is the right hon. Gentleman aware that this office is so incompetently run that it hardly ever answers anybody's letters?

Mr. Morrison

I think that that is a sweeping statement and one that ought not to have been made. The hon. Member has said that the office is so incompetent that it never answers letters. That really is a sweeping statement to make, and I do not believe that it is true. On the point of whether the address should be published, the address of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has been well-known for a long time, and there can be no question, therefore, of its not being known, but the Regional Commissioner, in the circumstances of London, thought that it was best to use a box office number, and I do not see my way to intervene. The letters get there just as quickly, and possibly more quickly at these times.

Sir H. Williams

Is the Home Secretary aware that not one of the 10 letters that I have addressed to that department over eight months has been answered or acknowledged?

Mr. Morrison

Perhaps the hon. Member will let me have particulars, and I will go into the matter.