§ 31. Mr. Teelingasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies why he made a statement on 2nd January denying the offer by his Department of a house to Mr. Anthony Brooke.
Mr. Creech JonesThe statement was made because Mr. Anthony Brooke's message to the Press in Singapore might have given the impression that the Colonial Office, or Colonial Government, had offered him a house and money in return for an undertaking not to interfere in the affairs of Sarawak.
§ Mr. TeelingIs not the right hon. Gentleman completely aware that Mr. Brooke made no such suggestion whatever, but said that it was the original Sarawak Government which made that offer? The Minister will agree that they were in the same position as the Governments of Belgium and Holland, who were refugee Governments here at the time the house was required?
Mr. Creech JonesFor the information of the House, Mr. Brooke refused to disclose, when asked, the origin of the offer. I think it very important that my two predecessors should be protected against a charge of this kind, when it was not within their jurisdiction to intervene at all in such a matter.