§ 48. Earl Wintertonasked the Prime Minister whether he will cause a White Paper to be published, based upon official statements already made here and in other countries of the British Empire, showing in general outline, without disclosing details likely to be useful to the enemy, the magnitude of the war effort in ships, planes, guns, tanks and personnel of all three Services, made respectively by the Dominions, India and the Crown Colonies, and territories under the Colonial Office?
§ Mr. AttleeAny return of the kind suggested by my right hon. and Noble Friend would require to be very severely restricted in order to avoid conveying information of value to the enemy. In the circumstances, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister does not think that the publication of a White Paper on the subject would serve any useful purpose.
§ Earl WintertonIs my right hon. Friend aware that while authoritative statements have been made in the Dominions and in India regarding the magnitude of their war effort, there is practically no reflection of those statements in the speeches of Ministers to the 41,000,000 people in this country; and is it not important that the world should know of the great contribution being made not only by the Dominions but by India and the Colonies?
§ Mr. AttleeI entirely agree with my Noble Friend that the world should know what the Dominions and Colonies are doing, and every effort should be made to make that known, but I think he will realise the difficulty of issuing a detailed White Paper.