HC Deb 19 February 1959 vol 600 cc542-3
50. Mr. S. Silverman

asked the Prime Minister what steps he has taken to coordinate the civil defence policies of the Home Department with those of the Ministry of Defence, so as to obviate the selection, as evacuation areas, of counties containing bomber and rocket sites.

49. Mr. Baird

asked the Prime Minister what steps he has taken to correlate the civil defence policy of the Home Department with that of the Ministry of Defence, in view of the latter's policy of concentrating active defence measures on air and rocket bases.

Mr. R. A. Butler

I have been asked to reply.

I would refer the hon. Members to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Mr. Swingler) and the hon. Member for Reading (Mr. Mikardo) on Tuesday last.

Mr. Silverman

I have read that Answer, but has the attention of the right hon. Gentleman been called to the reply given to me by the Minister of Defence on 11th February? I will quote one sentence only from it— Therefore we could not honestly say to the people of this country that in the present state of scientific knowledge there is any effective means of defending the country as a whole."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 11th February, 1959; Vol. 599, c. 1174.] Does this mean, therefore, that it is the policy of both Departments to transfer as many of the civil population of this country as they can to the immediate neighbourhood of the sites, which must necessarily be the prime object of the enemy's attack?

Mr. Butler

No, Sir. There was a Question down to me by the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, North-East (Mr. Baird) which I was going to answer verbally but which will be published in the OFFICIAL REPORT. In that Answer I shall state that a re-examination of the question of evacuation is taking place with the local authorities. That would be some consolation to the hon. Gentleman if he thought we were going to adopt a policy such as he suggested, because such consultation would undoubtedly result in a more commonsense solution than that which he suggests.