HC Deb 20 November 1951 vol 494 cc214-5
45. Mr. Shepherd

asked the Prime Minister the number of cases during the last three years in which there has been 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.