HC Deb 17 February 1949 vol 461 cc1327-30
24 and 25. Mr. Nally

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what action has been taken by him to enforce the deportation order made against Mr. Sydney Stanley; and if he will consider requesting the Government of Israel to grant Mr. Stanley an entry permit to territory under its control;

(2) if he will make a statement as to the result of his representations to the Polish authorities in the matter of the deportation order made against Mr. Sydney Stanley.

26. Mr. Eric Fletcher

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, as the Polish authorities are unwilling to accept Mr. Sydney Stanley, he is proposing to ask the Government of Israel if they are willing to admit him.

Ede

Until the Polish authorities have replied to the representations made to them I cannot add anything to what the House have already been told about the intention to deport Mr. Sydney Stanley.

Mr. Nally

If I put down a Question to my right hon. Friend next week, shall I have some hope of an answer? May I put it to him that in any such representation as he may have to make subsequently to the Government of Israel he will emphasise that British, Jewish and Arab lives have been sacrificed for the proposition that every Jew has the right to enter Palestine if he likes, and that a painful impression will be created if it appears that the Government of Israel will take only the best and leave those few parasites who batten on the people of other countries?

Ede

I am not considering any approach which I may ultimately have to make to the Government of Israel or anywhere else until I have received an answer from the Polish Government, and in view of other negotiations which I have had with that Government with regard to the deportation of aliens, I should not like to promise that I can give a final answer to my hon. Friend on this point next Thursday.

Mr. Fletcher

Would my right hon. Friend consider the desirability of inquiring, now that the new State of Israel are in the process of forming their constitution, whether on principle they are prepared to admit any stateless Jew who has no home of his own?

Mr. Ede

No, Sir. I think that it would be very undesirable that I should do anything at this stage which might militate against my getting Mr. Stanley into Poland.

Mr. Godfrey Nicholson

Was it intended as a compliment to the Government of Poland to offer them the first refusal?

Mr. Ede

Mr. Stanley——

Mr. Oliver Stanley

Mr. Sydney Stanley.

Mr. Ede

Mr. Sydney Stanley was originally described here as a Pole, and I think that it is our duty first to try to deal with him on that basis.

Mr. Austin

Can the Home Secretary say why on earth the people of the newly-born Socialist State of Israel should have this free-enterprise trained crook thrust upon them?

Air-Commodore Harvey

In the event of the Polish reply being favourable, will the right hon. Gentleman ensure that this gentleman is not sent to the Polish Embassy in London as trade commissioner with diplomatic privileges?

Mr. Ede

I am quite sure if that were to happen my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary would intimate that he was persona non grata.

Mr. Benn Levy

Will my right hon. Friend resist the suggestion behind these questions because they involve an intolerable principle, according to which it could come to be considered proper that, for example, any undesirable Catholic should be transported to a predominantly Catholic country; which is a quite intolerable principle.

Mr. Ede

I am trying to deal with this man on the basis of race and on no other——

Mr. Harold Macmillan

No.

Mr. Ede

If that was understood as meaning Jewish race, that was quite wrong. He describes himself as a Pole. If the House prefer the word "nationality," I will certainly use it, but I would not like any wrong impression to be drawn from a word which I regard in this context as meaning the same.

28. Sir Waldron Smithers

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in view of the fact that during the Lynskey Inquiry it was stated that Mr. Stanley's presence in this country was known to the Home Office since 1940, how many times he was visited by the police since then; if he notified every change of his address; and why the deportation order against him was not implemented.

Mr. Ede

Mr. Stanley reported daily to the Police from 10th May, 1940, until 17th June, 1943, when the Special Restriction Order requiring daily reports was revoked and since 1940 he has notified all changes of address. The deportation order made in 1933 had not been enforced by the outbreak of war because Mr. Stanley could not be traced and it was impracticable to enforce deportation orders during the war. The deportation order has not hitherto been enforced because until the recent Tribunal of Inquiry nothing to his detriment since 1943 had come to the notice of the police.

Sir W. Smithers

In the event of the Home Secretary failing to deport this gentleman, will he ask his right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to appoint Mr. Stanley as Chancellor of the Exchequer?