HC Deb 22 May 1952 vol 501 cc652-4
22. Mr. Field

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what grounds he refused to extend to foreign scientists facilities to attend a meeting of the World Federation of Scientific Workers which was to have been held at Cambridge on 22nd to 23rd March.

41. Mr. Awbery

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department why the foreign members of the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Scientific Workers were not permitted to enter this country to attend a meeting of their committee at Cambridge on 22nd March.

Sir D. Maxwell Fyfe

I decided that it would not be in the public interest to allow foreigners to come to this country to attend the proposed meeting of the Executive Council of the World Federation of Scientific Workers, which is one of the Communist-dominated international organisations whose primary object is to organise support, under various disguises, for Soviet policy.

Mr. Field

Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that there are points of view other than Communist represented on this World Federation, that in course of time those holding those views hope to gain the ascendancy and that his action does not help to that end? Did he see the agenda of the proposed meeting before he banned it?

Sir D. Maxwell Fyfe

The line that I have taken is, I think, well known to the House. I am prepared to consider the admission of Communists to any bona fideBritish body that wants their attendance. I am not prepared to admit them to a body artificially constituted to make itself a vehicle of Soviet propaganda.

Mr. S. Silverman

Can the right hon. and learned Gentleman say when it became part of the Home Secretary's duty, in exercising the discretion which is vested in him in these matters, to consider what he is pleased to call questions of public policy? Was it not always his duty not to put an "iron curtain" round our shores except in cases where the public safety was actually or primarily involved? Was it not always the case that questions of public policy are not to be determined by the Home Secretary of the day, and is not the greatest public interest of this country the preservation of its democratic tradition?

Mr. Field

Did the Home Secretary see the agenda of the proposed meeting before he banned it?

Sir D. Maxwell Fyfe

I did not see the whole agenda, but I was given a synopsis of it and I took that into account.

Mr. Bevan

In view of the fact that it is now universally held that when the Red Army came so far to the West it discovered a state of affairs far better than Soviet propaganda gave reason to suppose, would it not be rather better to allow Communists to come here and see the more urbane standards which we enjoy as against the propaganda they get?

Sir D. Maxwell Fyfe

I think I am right in considering the purpose for which these persons are coming. Persons who are coming with the purpose which I have mentioned are not likely to be affected by the considerations stated by the right hon. Gentleman. They do not come in that state of mind; they come in a state of mind to assist Soviet propaganda.

Major Beamish

Was not the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Ebbw Vale (Mr. Bevan) a leading member of the Government who refused to allow foreign Communists to attend the Sheffield Peace Conference?

Mr. S. Silverman

Owing to the extremely unsatisfactory nature of the reply, I give notice that I will raise this matter at an early opportunity on the Adjournment.