HC Deb 12 October 1944 vol 403 cc1925-7
43. Mr. Driberg

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will now publish the complete list of members of the Right Club, the activities of which were the subject of police inquiries.

61. Mr. Pritt

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will now publish the names of the members of the Right Club, seeing that the hon. and gallant Member for Peebles and Southern (Captain Ramsay), in the statement recently circulated by him, has given his own account of the club and named certain members of both Houses as connected with it and has stated that among the grounds given to him by the Home Office for his detention under Regulation 18B was the subversive character of the club.

Mr. H. Morrison

No, Sir. For reasons which I have explained on a previous occasion I do not think that it would be fair or in the public interest to publish this list, but I can give an assurance that appropriate steps are taken to watch any individual against whom there are grounds of suspicion.

Mr. Driberg

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that this club existed for the specific purpose of spreading anti-Semitism; and, in view of the fact that anti-Semitism is one of the classic weapons of Nazism and Fascism, is it not time to let the light of day in on the proceedings and personnel of this very shady secret society?

Mr. Morrison

I still think it would be unfair to publish the list. [An HON MEMBER: "Why?"]It is a list which has been compiled by a private individual. It may be correct, or it may not. There may be people who went on that list, with or without the opinions to which the hon. Member referred, and to publish lists of this character would, I think, be an improper use of the information which comes to the Home Office in all sorts of ways, and from all sorts of directions.

Mr. Shinwell

If there should be any truth—I am not suggesting that there is—in the allegation that some hon. Members of the House, past and present, were members of this club and were supporters of subversive activities, is it not desirable in the public interest and in the interest of Members as a whole, that the list should be published?

Mr. Morrison

If hon. Members were engaged in activities which were unlawful the law would have taken its course. If their activities were such that they should have been detained under Regulation 18B, they would have been so detained. That not being the case in these instances, it would be wrong for me to publish lists that come to me in a certain way.

Mr. Manner

Can the Home Secretary say whether Lord Haw-Haw and the convict Tyler Kent are still members of the Right Club?

Mr. Morrison

That is a question which I obviously should not answer, having regard to the previous answers given by me.

Mr. Pritt

With reference rather to Question 61 and on the general matter, will the right hon. Gentleman not consider that the circumstances are now somewhat different? The hon. and gallant Member for Peebles and Southern (Captain Ramsay) has now disclosed that one of the reasons why he was interned was his connection with the Right Club, and has described it as having close connection with the Conservative Party and having Conservative members. Is it not only fair to the Conservative Party to publish, not an inaccurate, but an accurate list of those persons known to the Home Secretary to be members of the Right Club?

Mr. Morrison

What the hon. and gallant Gentleman says is one thing, but I cannot agree that that should bind me. One of these days I might be asked in this House if I will publish a list, for example, of secret members of the Communist Party. I am not sure that my hon. and learned Friend would say that it was right for me to publish it.

Mr. Gallacher

May I ask the Home Secretary if it is not the case that all, or some, of those who were members of the Right Club, were accessories to the theft of documents and to espionage carried on by Tyler Kent and Anna Wolkoff? Is it not right that this House should know who these Members are who were accessories to the activities of these two people? Will the Minister dare to deny that they were accessories to the theft of documents?

Mr. Morrison

I think my hon. Friend is getting into rather deep water in relation to these questions. Of course, as he will recall, there have been some other people who have improperly acquired official information.

Mr. Driberg

In view of the Home Secretary's tenderness to this quisling organisation, I give notice that I will raise the matter on the Adjournment.

Mr. Pritt

On a point of Order, Mr. Speaker. As I, too, have put down a Question on this subject, I also would like to give notice that I will raise the matter on the Adjournment.

Mr. Gallacher

On a point of Order, Mr. Speaker. Is it in Order for the Minister to dodge an answer to my question by referring to another case where the offender was prosecuted? If the offender was prosecuted in one case, why is he not prosecuted in the other case?

Mr. Morrison

He was.

Mr. Speaker

That is not a point of Order.