§ 9. Mr. Shinwellasked the Secretary of State for War whether he will take criminal proceedings against the Evening Standard and its political correspondent for referring to an alleged discrepancy in a War Office dispatch about the Battle of Alam Haifa as a political forgery.
§ Mr. ProfumoNo, Sir.
§ Mr. ShinwellDoes not the Secretary of State regard a charge of this kind—one of political forgery directed against the War Office—as extremely improper and grave? Does he propose to take no action at all, not even reporting it to the 355 Press Council? Is it not time that some of these Press people were put in their place and not allowed to make charges which they cannot substantiate?
§ Mr. ProfumoIt is rather difficult for me. It was because I felt that the reported statement by the right hon. Member for Smethwick (Mr. Gordon Walker) that on the face of it this was political forgery was so unjustifiably damaging to those who were responsible for the Army at the time that I took the very unusual step of publishing part of Field Marshal Alexander's dispatches. It seems to me that if there is any question here of improper libel, it would be one between the right hon. Member for Easington (Mr. Shinwell) and the right hon. Member for Smethwick and the Evening Standard, for none of which, thank heavens, I am responsible.
§ Mr. ShinwellIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that when a newspaper has attacked me, I have repeatedly declared that the last thing I would do was to sue it for libel? The only occasion on which I would sue newspapers for libel was when they stopped talking about me.