HC Deb 27 October 1947 vol 443 cc516-7

[FIFTH DAY]

Order read for resuming Adjourned Debate on Question [21st October]: That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty as follows: Most Gracious Sovereign, We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in Parliament assembled, beg leave to offer our humble thanks to Your Majesty for the Gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament."—[Mr. Blyton.]

Question again proposed.

3.33 p.m.

Mr. Keeling (Twickenham)

It will take me only four minutes to finish the four-minute speech I began on Friday afternoon. I am very sorry that the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Mr. Mack), to whom I gave notice, is not present. In his speech the hon. Member pronounced Petkov guilty of the crime for which he was executed. I was saying that that view was not shared by His Majesty's Government, who were represented at the trial, and who in the protest which they sent to the Bulgarian Government after the execution said that the trial had been a travesty of justice and the culmination of the Government's campaign for silencing, and in this case murdering, all those who did not agree with them. The hon. Member for Oldham (Mr. Hale) objected to the word "murder" at Question Time today. That was the word used in the Government's Note. In my opinion anybody who applauds the condemnation of Petkov attacks the principles of liberty, of the rule of law and of national independence for which Petkov died.

The hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme claimed that when he was in Bulgaria last month he received a welcome from the people which was without parallel in the entire history of the Balkans. He also said that no man had ever done more to raise the prestige of Britain in the Balkans than himself. We have more important things to discuss this afternoon than the achievements of the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme in the Balkans, but as I was a witness of his actions in Sofia and actually stayed in the same hotel, I should just like to put this on record. It is quite true that as the hon. Member walked the streets he was cheered, but the applause was led by a bodyguard or claque, supplied by the Bulgarian Government, which surrounded him. On 9th September, after the condemnation but before the execution of Petkov, there was a great procession in Sofia in which all wage earners, under pain of punishment, were compelled to march.

Mr. Orbach (Willesden, East)

How do you know?

Mr. Keeling

I was there. As the Under-Secretary mentioned in reply to a Question today, the British political representative, now the British Minister, absented himself from the celebrations under instructions from the Foreign Office. The seat of the British political representative at the saluting point was occupied with great deliberation by the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme, who on Wednesday last declared himself a loyal supporter of His Majesty's Government. If that was loyalty, I think His Majesty's Government would have preferred the hon. Member to abstain from loyalty. If that was raising the prestige of Britain, God help Britain. The hon. Member also claimed to be a friend of the Bulgarian people. He is mistaken. The Bulgarian people reject the friendship of any man who applauds the condemnation of Petkov—perhaps the best loved man in their country. No man who, like the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme, is a friend of the Bulgarian Government can be a friend of the Bulgarian people.

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