HC Deb 30 July 1963 vol 682 cc208-9
5. Mr. Turton

asked the Secretary for Technical Co-operation whether he will extend the services of the Overseas Services Resettlement Bureau to include United Kingdom domiciled officers on local pay who have suffered loss of career because of the grant of self-government and independence to the countries of the old Colonial Empire.

Mr. R. Carr

No, Sir. The Bureau was established to assist the resettlement of officers who were recruited by the Secretary of State, or through the Crown Agents, and for whom Her Majesty's Government thus have a special responsibility. To extend its scope to other categories of people would weaken its ability to help those for whom we have this particular responsibility.

Mr. Turton

Does not my right hon. Friend appreciate that these men whom he is refusing to help are regarded as expatriate and expendable by the newly independent Governments? Does not he acknowledge the even greater moral obligation to help these men over those in the overseas service who are not domiciled in this country and who are citizens of other countries such as the Republic of South Africa and Germany?

Mr. Carr

This is a difficult question. We want to help all these people. It is a matter of the best way to do it. We feel that we have a special responsibility to those whom we actually recruited, and if we were to open this Bureau's services to a very much larger number we should, to that extent, weaken our ability to help those for whom we have this special responsibility. I hope that my right hon. Friend will not forget that, for example, in the professional and executive register at the Ministry of Labour there is a very good appointments service available to anybody who wants jobs at this level.

Mr. Turton

My right hon. Friend must accept a higher measure of responsibility to British ex-Service men who have been serving this country overseas than to Germans and South Africans to whom we have no obligation.

Mr. Carr

Yes, but we feel that our special responsibility is to those whom we actually recruit. The vast majority of these are British citizens. The fact that a few people who were recruited in this country happened to be citizens of countries other than Britain does not seem to us to alter the principle.