§ The Prime Minister (Mr. Harold Macmillan)With permission, Mr. Speaker, I will now make a statement about the offer made by the United Kingdom Government at the Montreal Conference, in September, to provide a house for Commonwealth meetings held in London. As the House will remember, this suggestion was welcomed by the Conference.
Her Majesty the Quean, who has shown a close personal interest in this project, has graciously offered to place her Palace of Marlborough House at the disposal of the United Kingdom Government so that it may be available for this purpose. I have expressed to Her Majesty our deep sense of obligation and gratitude and I have received messages from the Prime Ministers of other Commonwealth Governments welcoming this generous offer.
It is a generous and imaginative gesture on the Queen's part to make a royal palace available for this Commonwealth purpose. While it is so used, the Royal Family will no longer have at their disposal a house which has traditionally been the house either of the Queen Mother or the heir to the Throne. I feel confident that if, when the time comes, no other suitable residence is in the disposition of the Crown, a future Parliament will think it right to make appropriate provision for the Prince of Wales to have a home of his own.
The accommodation at Marlborough House will be both ample and suitable for Commonwealth meetings in London. Its main purpose will be to serve as a meeting place for Commonwealth Prime Ministers whenever they assemble in London. It can also accommodate other Commonwealth conferences, the meetings on economic matters which it was agreed at Montreal to co-ordinate under the name of the Commonwealth Economic Consultative Council, and meetings of the Commonwealth Economic Committee and other similar bodies.
The staff of the Commonwealth Economic Committee can be housed there and 203 we would also hope to provide a Commonwealth reference library which might be open to students and visitors from other parts of the Commonwealth.
No major structural alterations will be needed. Some adjustment and modernisation will, however, be required to adapt the building to its new purpose and new furnishings and equipment will need to be installed. This must take time to complete. The cost, together with the cost of maintaining it thereafter, will be borne, subject to the approval of Parliament, on the Votes of the Ministry of Works.
§ Mr. GaitskellMay I say that we on this side of the House are very glad to hear that Marlborough House will be made available for Commonwealth purposes, and that we greatly appreciate the action of Her Majesty in making it so available?
§ Mr. GrimondMay I say, on behalf of the Liberal Party, that we wish to be associated with the expression of gratitude to Her Majesty which has been made by both the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister?
§ Sir J. HutchisonWill my right hon. Friend be good enough to consider whether this generous gift, and a suitable debut in connection with this gift, might not be consideration by the Commonwealth of the situation which has arisen in connection with the Free Trade Area proposals?
§ The Prime MinisterThat is another question. I hope that the House will content itself today with an expression of agreement with this proposal, which began at Montreal, and our gratitude to Her Majesty for the imaginative thought that she has had in making this famous palace available for the purpose.