HC Deb 29 July 1952 vol 504 c1239
6. Mr. Foot

asked the Secretary of State for War on what grounds his Department proposes to keep in its possession a volume recently borrowed by his Department from the Plymouth Libraries and Museums Committee.

Mr. Head

This book is War Office property and strayed to the Plymouth Library. In view of the circumstances in which it was recaptured it will be returned to Plymouth on indefinite loan.

Mr. Foot

Would it not have been more courteous if the War Office had sent that reply in the first place, instead of telling the Plymouth Libraries Committee, from whom it had seized this book, that it had been decided by the War Office that it was going to hang on to it?

Mr. Head

The War Office asked no questions as to how it got to the Plymouth Library.