§ 6. Mr. Braineasked the Secretary of State for Air what representations he has received concerning repeated delays in the arrival of both daily and Sunday newspapers in Cyprus; and what action he has taken.
§ Mr. BraineIs my right hon. Friend aware, having regard to an Answer which was given to me yesterday, that these delays occurred over a period of three to four weeks and that on some days no newspapers at all arrived? Will my right hon. Friend not agree that when troops are engaged in operations it is vital that a continuous flow of information is available, and could he see that if a nuisance of this kind occurs again some emergency arrangements are made by the Royal Air Force to get newspapers to the men?
Mr. WardAs I understand it, the delay was caused through the temporary grounding of the Viscount aircraft. If this sort of thing happens in the future, we should, of course, always be willing to see what we could do to help at the time and in the particular circumstances, but I would not wish to hold out any hope that we should be able to divert Service aircraft to this task.