HC Deb 05 December 1946 vol 431 c479
8. Major Tufton Beamish

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that in an English language broadcast from Moscow, on Monday, 18th November, it was claimed that hundreds of thousands of low-priced modern houses for collective farmers, to be paid for by the owners in easy instalments over a period of five or six years, have been built in the Ukraine since the end of the war in spite of transport and production difficulties; and if he will take immediate steps to send a delegation to the U.S.S.R. to study the methods by which this programme has been achieved.

Mr. Bevan

No, Sir. I am, however, having inquiries made and will communicate further with the hon. and gallant Member.

Major Beamish

Does the right hon. Gentleman remember the wholly unmerited suggestion which he made during the war that some of our great commanders in the field should be replaced by foreigners and does he not think it is about time he applied his own medicine?

Mr. Bevan

I am delighted to see the enthusiasm of the party opposite for the Soviet Union.

Miss Bacon

While welcoming the unusual interest in Russia from a Member of the Opposition party, is my right hon. Friend aware that one result of a delegation from this country to Russia would be that the members of the delegation would return full of praise for the superior progress which is being made here?

Sir W. Smithers

They would all be shot.

Forward to