§ At the end of Questions—
§ The following Questions stood upon the Order Paper:
§ 51. Mr. MAYHEW (Woolwich, East)To ask the Prime Minister if he will now announce the names of the members of the proposed Royal Commission on the Press.
§ 52. Sir L. UNGOED-THOMAS (Leicester, North-East)To ask the Prime Minister if he will now announce the names of the members of the Royal Commission on the Press.
§ The Prime Minister (Mr. Harold Macmillan)With permission, I will answer Questions Nos. 51 and 52 together.
Her Majesty The Queen has been pleased to approve that Lord Shawcross be appointed Chairman of the Royal Commission on the Press.
The other members will be Professor Robert Browning, Sir Graham Cunningham, Mr. W. B. Reddaway and Mr. W. J. P. Webber.
I should add that, before he accepted my invitation, Lord Shawcross made it clear to me that he was about to go abroad in order to fulfil certain important and long-standing commitments in the Far East. He will be abroad until 28th March, but the necessary preparatory work is, I understand, being put in hand at once.
§ Mr. MayhewIs the Prime Minister aware that the country will want to look at the Report from the Royal Commission with the least possible delay? Will he, therefore, either ask the Commission to report urgently, or else ask it to make a special interim report on the Odhams-Daily Mirror merger, so that we can have the Commission's view on that?
§ The Prime MinisterThat, I made it clear, was not in the terms of reference. I particularly kept this Commission small because, although it does not quite logically follow, if there is a smaller membership it is easier to arrange meetings than it is with a large Commission and it is easier to get through the work. I particularly asked those whom I wanted to join the Commission whether they would give really good time to it, so that the work could be done rapidly, and I am sure that they have accepted on that understanding.
§ Mr. WadeCan the Prime Minister say how long the proceedings will last, and whether there have been any conversations as to a timetable?
§ The Prime MinisterNo, Sir. I cannot foretell exactly how long the proceedings will last, but, as I explained to the House, the reason for having a Royal Commission was because of the greater weight it has—the power to get papers and witnesses. But a Commission of this size, although rather unusual, is specially designed to try to get a rapid Report.
§ Mr. GaitskellMay I ask the Prime Minister whether, nevertheless, he will ask the Commission either to report urgently or, if it finds that the scope of the inquiry is such that a Report is inevitably rather long-delayed, that it will make an interim Report?
§ The Prime MinisterI would certainly consider discussing that with the Commission, but, of course, it must be a Report within the terms of reference, and if the Commission felt that it could deal with certain subjects seriatim, II might be able to do it in that way.
§ Mr. M. FootHave the Government been able to make any final estimate of how many mergers are likely to go through before Lord Shawcross starts on the job?
§ The Prime MinisterThe hon. Gentleman was, no doubt, out of the House when we discussed this issue. There are various aspects of the problem. Some are being dealt with by the Jenkins Committee, but they are general to all forms of business. Others may be looked at by the Monopolies Commission. But the particular problem underlying the reasons for the difficulty which appears to be 1379 that the newspapers with quite large circulations are not able, in present economic conditions, to keep going—all those are questions which I hope the Commission will investigate. I am satisfied that the men serving on the Commission are men of great capability and knowledge, and will do their work well.
§ Mr. Emrys HughesBut is not Lord Shawcross a director of a large merger himself? Is he not the director of a company largely interested in advertising, and are not the majority of the members of the Commission intimately concerned with the big capitalist establishment that flourishes on the capitalist Press?
§ The Prime MinisterWell, Lord Shaw-cross has, I think, exactly the kind of qualities to make this inquiry both searching and effective. Professor Browning is Professor of Accountancy at Glasgow University—a very respectable university. Sir Graham Cunningham has served the Government—as many hon. Members know who may have worked with him—very well in war and peace. Mr. Reddaway is Director of the Department of Applied Economics at Cambridge, and Mr. Webber is the very respectable trade union secretary—[An HON. MEMBER: "And very able."]—the very respectable and very able secretary of the Railway Transport Salaried Staffs Association. I consider that we are fortunate to have got men to give time to a matter of this kind—and, of course, men of this calibre.