HC Deb 27 September 1944 vol 403 cc216-7
11. Miss Ward

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is considering the establishment of interdepartmental machinery at a high level for devising ways and means for solving the political, economic, and social problems which call for international settlement.

Mr. Eden

I am not clear exactly what my hon. Friend has in mind. But I can assure her that we already possess valuable inter-departmental machinery, on both the Ministerial and official levels, to ensure that each Department of the Government plays its full part in framing policy and action on international problems. This machinery is developed or modified as circumstances require.

Miss Ward

Has my right hon. Friend had the experience of going, for instance, to the Board of Trade and asking what the Government policy is with regard to trade with China, and being told that it is some other Department's affair? Will he give an undertaking that he will go into this matter, because really the machinery is not satisfactory, although he, in his very high position, may think that it is?