HC Deb 15 July 1947 vol 440 cc207-8
25. Mr. Boyd - Carpenter

asked the Secretary of State for War whether he will see that members of His Majesty's Government holding appointments in his Department make a general practice of signing letters sent in reply to letters addressed to them by honourable Members of this House.

Mr. Bellenger

The number of letters addressed by hon. Members to my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State and myself is very large indeed. Nevertheless, both he and I endeavour to sign replies personally but it is physically impossible to sign each reply without detriment to the other important duties imposed on us.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

Is the right hon. Gentleman telling the House that his Department has more correspondence than, for example, the Board of Trade, the Ministers of which are most punctilious in signing letters to hon. and right hon. Gentlemen?

Mr. Bellenger

I should think that that is quite possible—from Members of Parliament and not the general public.

Mr. Quintin Hogg

Is there any reason at all to suppose that the right hon. Gentleman and the Under-Secretary are receiving more letters than the War Department did during the war? Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that during the war we always had a courteous reply signed by the Minister concerned?

Mr. Bellenger

That question is entirely wrong, because I have had letters from the War Department signed by the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then Secretary of State for War. I should say that since the war we have had more letters from Members of Parliament in the War Office than previously.

Mr. Keeling

Differing from my hon. Friend just below me, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman if he is aware that in the comparatively rare cases when he signs replies to hon. Members they are even more unsatisfactory than when they are signed by his Parliamentary Private Secretary?

Mr. Walker-Smith

May I ask the Secretary of State, particularly in view of his rather unfriendly disparagement of my military knowledge in regard to the War Office, to use his influence with some of his colleagues to persuade them not to send me letters addressed, "Dear Col."?

Mr. Bellenger

Yes, Sir. I regret this undue familiarity.