HC Deb 13 February 1946 vol 419 cc381-2
40. Major Guy Lloyd

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs when free elections are to be held in Poland.

Mr. Bevin

I have not yet been advised of the definite date.

Major Lloyd

Will the right hon. Gentleman consider how long this terrible racket in Poland can continue? Is he aware that the Provisional Government is busy Communising the whole country and attempting every method from deportation to murder to gain its own ends?

Hon. Members

Speech.

Mr. S. Silverman

On a point of Order. Before that question is answered, Mr. Speaker, may I ask you whether it is proper in this House for a Government with whom we are on friendly relations to be described as a "terrible racket "?

Mr. Speaker

That would be a sound point of Order if it were directed against the head of a State with which we are in friendly relations. While there is no responsibility for another Government, their actions can be criticised, but not the head of a friendly State.

Squadron-Leader Donner

Is it in Order, Mr. Speaker, in this House, for the majority to shout down any hon. Member with whom they do not agree?

Mr. Speaker

I am afraid that, when the hon. and gallant Member has been in this House as long as I have, he will find that this sort of thing does occur.

Mr. Gallacher

Is it in Order for an hon. Member of this House to gather up the columns of muck that he reads in the "Sunday Mail" and bring it down here?

Mr. Bevin

It is perfectly right, in any country, for a political party to advocate its own particular claims. The hon. and gallant Member advocates the claims of the Conservative Party. We of the Labour Party and the Communists have a perfect right to do the same, and I cannot imagine that anyone who advocated their claims should be regarded as a racket. I should not regard the speeches of the hon. and gallant Member, in Scotland and elsewhere, in which he sometimes attacks me, as a racket.

Major Lloyd

Is there not a great deal of difference between that and doing anything from deportation to murder to help your own case?

Mr. Bevin

Charges ought not to be made without careful inquiry into the facts. It is quite easy to throw about charges about other people. I have to keep a calm judgment on this case, and I cannot admit these things which are sometimes hurled across this House largely out of prejudice.

Professor Savory

May I ask, with regard to free elections, whether the right hon. Gentleman is not aware of the recent wholesale arrests by the security police of the opponents of the Provisional Government?

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Member was asking about free elections. I cannot see that arrests affect them.

Professor Savory

How can free elections be held when 75,000 people have been arrested by the security police?

Mr. Speaker

These are wild statements.

Professor Savory

It is supported by ample proof

Mr. Speaker

No, I am not going to allow more questions on this matter.