HC Deb 09 February 1954 vol 523 cc999-1000
44. Mr. Chetwynd

asked the Secretary of State for War whether the views expressed in the official telegram received by British officials negotiating in Washington on the standardisation of small arms, stating that it was War Office policy to standardise the Belgian F.N. rifle in January, 1951, was approved by the Army Council and represented Government policy.

Mr. Head

I have nothing to add to what was said last Tuesday.

Mr. Chetwynd

Is it not clear from what the Minister has said that he was quite wrong to refer to something as Government policy which had not been approved either by the Army Council or the Minister concerned, and would it not be better now if he were to apologise to the right hon. Gentleman and withdraw the allegations he made in that debate?

Mr. Head

I was particularly careful to refer to it as War Office policy and not Government policy.

Mr. Strachey

Does not the right hon. Gentleman's memory betray him? In HANSARD, 1st February, c. 100, he quite definitely alleges that this was the policy of my right hon. Friend personally, and then, as he explained the next day, of the Government. That is surely a charge which has turned out to be unfounded.

Mr. Head

No, Sir. I have looked the matter up in HANSARD most carefully, and if the hon. Gentleman looks he will see that what I said was: I will tell the right hon. Gentleman, if he will not be so impatient. I am stating that War Office policy as stated to the United States was,…"—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 1st February, 1954; Vol. 523, c. 101.] I stated that immediately after I said that I was referring to the position as a whole.

Mr. Shinwell

The right hon. Gentleman will recognise that I have been very patient over this matter and with him personally. Will he be good enough to tell the House that he has written to me personally, conveying a qualified apology, and that I have written to him in reply, saying that I bear no malice? Would it not be proper for the right hon. Gentleman to be quite fair to the House and those concerned and give the facts without prejudice?

Mr. Head

The right hon. Gentleman has certainly been most pleasant over this matter. I wrote to him to assure him that I did not spend my time digging in the back files of the War Office in order to try and score points off him. What I did state on every occasion wasthat this was War Office policy. I was most scrupulous in stating that.