§ 61. Major Tufton Beamishasked the Economic Secretary to the Treasury if he has now received the evidence on which the Chairman of the South-West Regional Board for Industry based his allegations that Communists are trying to undermine the will to work and that production has been slowed down by them; what is the nature of this evidence; and if he will publish it.
§ Mr. JayYes, Sir. The evidence to which the Chairman of the Regional Board was specifically referring consists of a letter that came into his hands from a person in the locality who had picked it up. The document, if authentic, discloses an effort to stir up trouble in a factory by underground and conspiratorial methods 1100 which need not in any case be taken too seriously and seem more suited to dramatic fiction than to real life in British industry.
The chairman of the Regional Board quite reasonably regarded the document as genuine but it has not been possible to establish its authenticity beyond doubt and I do not, therefore, propose to publish it.
§ Major BeamishCan the Economic Secretary let me see this document, to see if I can establish its authenticity?
§ Mr. JayWe do not wish to publish the document at all until we are fully satisfied of its authenticity.