ADJOURNMENT (SUMMER) (Hansard, 1 August 1956)

§ Mr. Clement Davies
May I urge the right hon. Gentleman not to press this Motion today? I emphasise the fact that at the present time a very important conference is going on between the Secretary of State of the United States of America, the Foreign Secretary of France and members of the Government. What the outcome will be we do not know, but tomorrow we are to have a five-hour debate upon this matter. I am asking that this Motion should be postponed until tomorrow, when we will know much better what has happened.

§ Mr. Gaitskell
I shall not make any particular comment upon what the right hon. and learned Member for Montgomery (Mr. C. Davies) has said, except to suggest to him, with great respect, that if the Motion is postponed until tomorrow it might interfere rather seriously with the progress of the debate on Suez—which is a point which will no doubt have occurred to the Leader of the House. I rise really only to ask the Lord Privy Seal for an assurance that he will give very serious consideration to any representations which might be made by the Opposition during the Recess for the recall of Parliament, should we feel it necessary to approach him and the Prime Minister upon this matter.

§ Viscount Hinchingbrooke
Why only the Opposition?

§ Mr. Gaitskell
The hon. Member for Dorset, South (Viscount Hinchingbrooke) evidently did not hear what the Leader of the House said today. He has already said that, if they think fit, the Government will recall Parliament. I am asking him whether, if the Opposition feel it necessary to recall Parliament and come to the Government with that proposition, the Government will take our views seriously into account. I do not propose to oppose this Motion. As the Prime Minister said, the length of the Recess is a week shorter than it was last year, but we are going away at a very anxious and worrying moment in our affairs and we are all 1406 naturally most concerned that if it is necessary we should certainly be recalled.

Mr. Butler
Perhaps the right hon. and learned Member for Montgomery (Mr. C. Davies) will allow me to deal with the points raised by the Leader of the Opposition. I will certainly give an undertaking that the Government will listen to any representations made by Her Majesty's Opposition about the recall of the House in the event of any international or similar circumstance arising which would seem to make it advisable for the House to be recalled. I give that assurance in an unqualified way.
I would also say, in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Dorset, South (Viscount Hinchingbrooke), that as we are governed by Standing Order No. 112, as you have said, Mr. Speaker—which provides for the recall of the House by Mr. Speaker if the Government make representations to him to do so—the Government will also give an undertaking that we shall pay attention to the point of view of any block or group of hon. Members who feel that the House should be recalled. It is constitutionally right for me to give the first assurance to the Opposition, but equally right that I should give an assurance to the House as a whole that if there is a reason for doing so we should recall the House—and it would be the wish of the Government that the House be recalled if the international situation so demanded. I hope that that answers the right hon. Gentleman and gives him the assurance he wants.
In answer to the right hon. and learned Member for Montgomery, I would say that I did consider with my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister whether we could move this Motion a little later. We discussed the matter with the Opposition through the usual channels and we came to the conclusion, as the right hon. Gentleman has indicated in general terms, that it was inevitable that it should be moved today. To move it tomorrow would mean that I should have to move it, under the Motion that we have already passed, at 12 o'clock, and that would mean that it would be moved before the debate on the Suez Canal, when I do not think that we should be any further forward in considering either the expressions of view which will be 1407 made by the Prime Minister, or any member of the Government—or the House—than we shall be today. What we are really governed by—and I hope that the House will pay attention to this—is the Government's firm determination to recall the House if it should be necessary.
If the Government were not in that mood, I could imagine the right hon. and learned Gentleman wishing to press his case; but as I have given an assurance, not only to the Opposition but to hon. Members as a whole, that we should be ready to recall the House if need arises, and if it is clear that hon. Members desire it, I think it is better, and indeed inevitable, that the Motion should be moved today. That still leaves us five hours, which is quite a long time to debate the Suez question. Let us hope that that debate will contribute, as the discussion today may contribute, to a proper and satisfactory conclusion of that affair.

§ Mr. Wigg
Would the right hon. Gentleman consider having consultations with the Leader of the Opposition with a view to recalling the House if it is necessary to call out any section of the Army Reserve which is not protected by Proclamation? As matters now stand—I do not think that the right hon. Gentleman would dissent from this—Section B of the Army Reserve can be called out for service outside the United Kingdom only by Proclamation; and if that procedure is used, the House of Commons must be recalled. But there is another section of the Army Reserve, Section A, which is not so protected.
Some of my hon. Friends may think that I am wasting the time of the House in raising this matter—[HON. MEMBERS: "No."]—but these men are Regular Army Reservists and the only people they have to protect them are hon. Members of this House. At present, these Reservists are going about their jobs and may be thinking, as some hon. Members are 1408 thinking, of going away for the weekend with their families. There will be no Proclamation for them if they are needed, but merely, perhaps on Saturday morning, a notice delivered by the postman through the letter box. Then, instead of spending August Bank Holiday with their families, they will spend it in the Suez Area—[Laughter.] Yes, that is the procedure. Hon. Gentlemen may laugh, but that is the procedure.
In fact, it is possible to call out a number of men—if hon. Gentlemen will be good enough to look at the Army Estimates, they will see that the number may be anything up to 150,000—and, according to the Press this morning, the Government are considering calling up Army Reservists. That could only be Section A Reservists. Therefore, I should have thought that, although hon. Gentlemen are in an hilarious mood, they would wish to protect these men, some of whom may be their constituents.
I am not pressing the Government to recall the House, but I am pressing the Government to give the same protection to these Regular Army Reservists as the rest of the Reservists have. Therefore, without asking the right hon. Gentleman to go so far as to say that the House will be recalled, may I ask whether he will give an assurance to consult with the Leader of the Opposition—or perhaps the Leader of the Opposition will be kind enough to press the Government to recall the House—if Section A of the Army Reserve is called out?

Mr. Butler
I can go no further than I did in answer previously to the hon. Member, namely, to say that I believe his statement of the facts is correct as between Section A and the others, because I have already looked into the matter. But I can give no assurance about recalling the House beyond that which I have already given to the official Opposition and to the House as a whole.