HC Deb 18 March 1963 vol 674 cc114-20

Motion made, and Question proposed, That a sum, not exceeding £510,000, be granted to Her Majesty, to defray the expense of miscellaneous effective services including certain grants in aid and a subscription to the World Meteorological Organisation, which will come in course of payment' during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1964.

7.34 p.m.

Mr. Mulley

The hour is late, and I rise to make only two points. First, it is rather intriguing to see in the Air Estimates for the Royal Air Force an item of civil flying services which appears to have increased by 30 per cent. I wonder why the Air Force—I am sure there is a good reason for it—has to incur civil flying services, which, I presume, are distinct from any passenger travel on civil airlines.

My second point is about publicity and recruiting services. A reduction is contemplated in that part of this item which falls on this Vote. The reference in the Estimates to the Central Office of Information and the Stationery Office Votes suggests that it is contemplated spending nearly £400,000 on Press and poster advertising. I do not want to go into this subject in detail, but I hope, as was revealed in evidence before the Estimates Committee a few years ago, that where possible the Royal Air Force is encouraging its personnel to carry out publicity, particularly at exhibitions, and so on, because the Estimates Committee at that time was impressed with the quality of the work that was being done at only a fraction of the cost of comparable work in the other Services which was put out to private contract.

I hope that in this poster and Press advertising campaign the Ministry is satisfied that it is getting value for this volume of expenditure. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman will say a word about publicity and recruiting services for next year.

7.36 p.m.

Mr. Eden

I wonder whether my hon. Friend would say a word in further explanation of why the subscription of the World Meteorological Organisation has been increased by £4,000 this year? It is very important that we should always examine the validity of continuing any subscription to an international organisation. We tend to belong to many different organisations. We contribute fairly large sums towards them, and I sometimes wonder how closely we follow those up and make certain that we get value for money, because we cannot exercise any sort of control over the way in which these organisations are controlled and run, and we cannot ensure that they are doing their job as efficiently as we would like to have it done.

So far as I know, the World Meteorological Organisation plays an important part in the interchange of meteorological information across the world. I believe that I am right in saying that this is the major point of contact with the Iron Curtain countries, the Soviet Union, in particular, in matters of this kind. Perhaps my hon. Friend will have heard of the proposal which was put forward at the last meeting of the N.A.T.O. Parliamentarians' Conference in the latter part of last year that there should be set up a separate N.A.T.O. meteorological organisation.

I am the last person to suggest that there should be any duplication in this or any other sphere, but I wonder whether, in view of the remarks of my hon. Friend on an earlier Vote about this island being in a peculiar meteorological area, we would not get greater benefit from assisting in the creation of a more localised meteorological centre than in taking part in this world organisation? I think that I have said enough to give notice to my hon. Friend of my general interest in this organisation, and if he could give us any further information on it I would be most grateful.

7.40 p.m.

Mr. Emrys Hughes

I should like the Minister to give us some further information about the publicity efforts for the Royal Air Force dental campaign. I have here a pamphlet which is a sample of the kind of publicity conducted by the Air Force. It is called, "A portrait of a Royal Air Force dental officer" Having read the first page, I came to the conclusion that the Royal Air Force publicity department must be permeated by Communists.

On the front page there is a wonderful piece of propaganda for State enterprise. We are told about the sufferings of dentists under private enterprise methods and how wonderfully their lot could be improved if they enrolled under a State service in the Royal Air Force.

The writer of the pamphlet becomes absolutely lyrical about the Royal Air Force dental officer. On the first page he states: The Royal Air Force dental surgeon is today a man to be envied. Unlike his civilian colleague he is the dentist with the time needed for each patient, with time to study and with time to specialise. He enjoys complete clinical freedom—his standards are never lowered. He has no intricate administrative paper work to spoil his evening after a long and harassing day filled with National Health patients, and he has no need to work overtime scaling and polishing teeth. This is an absolute Utopia for the dentist: His conditions of work are always comparable in cleanliness and perfection with those of a first-class private practice. He uses the very best and latest equipment, Transport House has never published such a convincing picture as this: He is not worried that he will fall ill one day and have to find and engage a locum in his absence. As well as these advantages, he enjoys at least six weeks' leave a year, with full pay, and knows that when he returns he will not have lost some of his patients, and therefore part of his salary. The pamphlet goes on: The R.A.F. dental surgeon will tell you that the sense of financial security which the Service gave him in his first job, when newly qualified, enabled him to gain confidence—and the unharassed though busy working day helped him to gain the speed which he had not yet acquired on leaving hospital. This is a powerful argument for handing over the whole dental service of the nation to the Royal Air Force. Here is a nationalised industry. Hon. Members opposite object to nationalisation on principle, but here we have a eulogy about how nationalisation works in relation to pulling out and mending the teeth of members of the Royal Air Force.

There is a lot in this pamphlet—I do not know what it cost—which is irrelevant to the question of filling and pulling out teeth. But at least we get four beautiful illustrations of what a splendid, wonderful and exhilarating experience it is to have one's teeth extracted in the Royal Air Force. I am not sure whether this is recruiting propaganda to attract people into the Air Force, or a recruiting campaign to persuade dissatisfied dentists to join a full-blown scheme of nationalisation.

Can the Minister tell the Committee something about this publicity campaign? Has it succeeded? Are dentists being attracted to the Royal Air Force and from what branches of the civilian service are they being recruited? I advise hon. Members to read this propaganda literature in order to realise that Communism goes on in the Royal Air Force in the most strange places and in the most curious ways.

7.45 p.m.

Mr. Bence

I see that under Subhead C, "Fees and other payments for personal services," there is a charge of £355,000 in the Estimate for 1963–64 to include … payments for medical and meteorological research at universities … I should like an explanation, because cannot understand how medical and meteorological research at universities and colleges can be a charge on the Air Estimates.

Under Subhead D there is a statement which I have tried to track down in the Estimates, but I cannot fathom it. There, it states that "Welfare expenses" Excludes welfare expediture on transport, etc. …

Mr. Eden

If the hon. Gentleman turns to page 48 of the Estimates, and looks at Appendix VIII, he will see a number of answers to his questions.

Mr. Bence

It does not answer the first question: why should work at universities on meteorological and medical research be a charge on the Air Estimates? I cannot understand it. Are there people at the universities doing medical research which is appropriate only to the Air Ministry? Is it dental research? Are some Air Force dentists at the universities doing research and if so, does the Air Force pay for their establishment? Have they a post-graduate scholarship for which the Ministry pays? We should have a full explanation of what is the organisation which is apparently attached to the Air Ministry. I hope that the Under-Secretary can provide an appropriate answer.

7.47 p.m.

Mr. Ridsdale

The hon. Member for Sheffield, Park (Mr. Mulley) referred to the civil flying services. Provision is made under Subhead K (2) mainly for services such as anti-aircraft target towing carried out by civil contractors. The increase this year arises because we plan to share a VCIO proving programme with B.O.A.C. The Corporation and the R.A.F. will jointly carry out a flying programme preparatory to the introduction into route service of the VC10. This will be to the financial benefit of both parties and will save some time.

The hon. Member for Sheffield, Park and my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, West (Mr. Eden) asked about publicity on recruiting services. Most of the expenditure on Press advertising, pamphlets, and so on, comes from the Votes of the Central Office of Information. The small provision in the Air Votes is spent on recruiting stands at exhibitions, window displays at recruiting offices and classified advertising, mostly for civilian vacancies, and the production of the Royal Air Force newspaper.

Vote 9B has been reduced because recruiting has, in general, gone well this year, and because manpower economies and changes in deployment, mainly in the disbanding of the Thor squadrons, have reduced requirements. We aim to recruit fewer men next year in the adult ground trades. This is reflected in lower recruiting publicity expenditure. We shall have fewer career information centres next year and they will spend less on classified advertising and window display material.

My hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, West also asked a question about the World Meteorological Organisation. International co-operation has been a prominent feature of the science of meteorology for almost a century and the World Meteorological Organisation, which has 120 member States and territories, is the latest of a number of assemblies through which co-operation has been discussed and arranged. It is a specialised agency of the United Nations, similar in nature to U.N.E.S.C.O., the International Civil Aviation Organisation, and the World Health Organisation. It has a small permanent secretariat in Geneva, but the greater part of its work is done through technical commissions and regional associations the members of which come from the national services and the universities and work on a voluntary basis.

Modern weather forecasting is dependent upon the speedy interchange of information about the weather between many countries, and the work of the national services could not proceed without a body of this kind which lays down standard practices and gives expert advice to the less developed services. The British contribution to the World Meteorological Organisation is £14,551 in 1962–63, and, as the Committee has noticed, will rise to £18,822 in 1963–64. This is mainly the result of the World Meteorological Organisation's efforts to raise the standard of meteorological observations and services in underdeveloped countries.

There is, however, no connection between the World Meteorological Centre, which my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, West mentioned. The latter is as yet only a tentative proposal which has not been discussed at Government level. Nonetheless, I have not forgotten the promise I gave him in the debate the other day and I shall certainly let him know what emerges.

That answers the main questions, apart from the question asked by the hon. Member for Dunbartonshire, East (Mr. Bence) about the medical side of the Estimates. That is for medical post-graduate scholarships.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved, That a sum, not exceeding £510,000, be granted to Her Majesty, to defray the expense of miscellaneous effective services including certain grants in aid and a subscription to the World Meteorological Organisation, which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1964.