§ 20. Sir A. Knoxasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he has made inquiries of the United States Government as to the circumstances in which the Report of the U.S.A. Envoy in India to his Government came into the hands of unofficial Senators; and if he is satisfied that the secrecy of British codes has not been vitiated.
§ Mr. EdenI would refer the hon. and gallant Gentleman to the answer which my right hon. Friend the Under-Secretary gave yesterday on this subject in reply to two Questions asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Kidderminster (Sir J. Wardlaw-Milne), which, with the permission of Mr. Speaker, I would propose to read:
Suggestions that his Majesty's Government or the Government of India had informed the United States Government that Mr. Phillips was persona non grata have already been denied by Mr. Cordell Hull and by His Majesty's Ambassador at Washington. His Majesty's Government are not in a position to confirm the authenticity of Mr. Phillips' report, which was addressed to the President of the United States. It naturally never passed through British hands, and there is, therefore, no question of its leakage from British sources, and I am satisfied that there has been no compromising of any British code or cypher in this connection. As to the criticisms of the Indian Army in the report, I should like to take this opportunity on behalf of His Majesty's Government of paying that Army the warmest possible tribute. Every Indian in it is a volunteer, and its fighting record over five years in every theatre of war has not been surpassed by any army in the field."—[OFFCIAL REPORT, 26th September, 1944; Vol. 403, c. 50.]