§ 45. Mr. Shepherdasked the Prime Minister the number of cases during the last three years in which there has been 215 damage to property of the Armed Forces and Government corporations; whether an investigation has taken place in each of these cases; and in how many instances sabotage is suspected.
§ The Prime Minister (Mr. Winston Churchill)During the last three years property of the Armed Forces and of Government corporations has suffered damage on a number of occasions. Some of the damage has been accidental or due to negligence; some has been caused maliciously. Whenever damage is discovered an investigation is made, its character depending on the seriousness of the incident and an estimate of its probable cause.
I presume that by "sabotage" the hon. Member does not mean all acts of malicious damage, whatever their motive, but only those acts which are intended to assist a foreign power by harming the State. Apart from damage to British property in the Middle and Far East, I am advised that there has been no evidence in any incident during the last three years of sabotage in this sense.