§ Q1. Mr. Zilliacusasked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the "Spies for Peace" pamphlet, he will now instruct the Minister of Defence and the Home Secretary to publish a joint White Paper explaining the Government's measures for preserving the lives of the civil population in the event of a nuclear war.
§ Mr. ZilliacusIs not the Prime Minister aware that the pamphlet referred to gave a detailed account of the failure of the Fallex 62 operation and that when, last October, he alerted the V-bombers and rockets in this country without putting in hand the civil defence policy which was supposed to operate during a period of general alert, he created the impression, which is now very widespread, that we have no proper 898 policy for protecting the civil population? Will the right hon. Gentleman issue a statement and bring us up to date on this?
§ The Prime MinisterThe Government's civil defence measures have been made clear in the House, in successive White Papers on defence and in other Government publications, but I think that neither this Government nor the Government of any country can deny that any form of nuclear warfare, if it ever came, would have the most terrible results, and all that the civil defence measures can do to try to mitigate them.
§ Mr. Emrys HughesWill the Prime Minister tell us what progress has been made with the plans for evacuating about 4 million of the civil population? Is he aware that those original plans meant moving large numbers of people from Glasgow to the Highlands of Scotland by rail? Now that the railways are to be abolished, how is this operation to be carried out?
§ The Prime MinisterIf the hon. Gentleman will put down a Question on evacuation, I will answer it.