HC Deb 21 June 1944 vol 401 cc200-1
The Minister of Production (Mr. Lyttelton)

Mr. Speaker, may I with your permission make a brief personal explanation? I feel that an explanation is due to the House of some words that I used in addressing the American Chamber of Commerce yesterday. I was trying, in a parenthesis, to make clear the gratitude which this country feels for the help given to us in the war against Germany, before Japan attacked the United States. The words I used, however, when read textually, and apart from the whole tenor of my speech, seemed to mean that the help given us against Germany provoked Japan to attack. This is manifestly untrue. I want to make it quite clear that I do not complain of being misreported, and any misunderstanding is entirely my own fault. I ask the House to believe, however, that the fault was one of expression and not of intention. I hope this apology will undo any harm that the original words may have caused here or in the United States.