§ Q5. Commander Courtneyasked the Prime Minister on whose authority the letter, dated 4th March, from the hon. and gallant Member for Harrow, East, addressed to the Standing Security Commission was referred to the Foregn Office; and what action he intends to take on the recommendations put forward in this letter.
§ The Prime MinisterNo special authority was needed. The hon. and gallant Member's letter was replied to 1346 by the Foreign Office because its subject matter was more its concern than that of the Standing Security Commission. The recommendations it contains are being studied afresh, but I can hold out little hope that they will in fact prove acceptable.
§ Commander CourtneyCan the Prime Minister tell me when I shall receive a reply from the Security Commission itself, to which I addressed the letter? In the light of the past 15 years, is he really leaving it to the Foreign Office to be judge and jury in its own case in these important security matters?
§ The Prime MinisterThe hon. and gallant Gentleman, whose deep concern in these matters we all know, will realise that the Security Commission is an independent body, and it is extremely important that it should be allowed to act on its own without interference from political sources, Government, Opposition or anything else. I understand that, in fact, he sent his letter to one member of the Security Commission who, if I may say so, appropriately passed it to the secretary who decided that it was a matter for the Foreign Office since it raised matters within the field of the Foreign Office and not within the Security Commission's terms of reference. He will recall, as I had a long discussion with him about this matter, that I have asked him for any further suggestions which we might be able to consider.
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeI am glad that the Prime Minister added what he did in the last sentence of his reply. Will he look at this procedure again? My hon. and gallant Friend wrote a quite important letter to the Security Commission. It was handed on to the Department which was interested in the particular points which he raised. I should have thought that it might have gone to the Prime Minister or, indeed, that the Security Commission might have dealt with it on its own without referring it to the Department which was to some extent criticised in my hon. and gallant Friend's letter. Perhaps the Prime Minister would look at it again.
§ The Prime MinisterThe right hon. Gentleman himself set up the Security Commission. I hope that he is not now criticising the procedure which was 1347 followed in respect of a letter received by a member of the Commission. I think that it would be quite wrong for us to start giving instructions to the Commission about how it does its business. Its independence is something to which both sides of the House have attached great importance.
As regards the recommendations in the letter, I think that many of them are recommendations which have frequently been put by the hon. and gallant Gentleman to my predecessors as Prime Minister and, quite frankly, nothing has been done about them. I think that that is his complaint. I rather agree with my predecessors on most of the recommendations, but I have indicated to the hon. and gallant Gentleman that I am prepared to discuss these ideas that he has at any time.
§ Sir Alec Douglas-HomeThe Prime Minister quite rightly says that this Commission is independent, but it did immediately react to my hon. and gallant Friend's letter by sending it to the Foreign Office. This does not look very much as though it thought it was independent and able to deal with it independently. I am only asking the Prime Minister to look at the subject again, and this matter in particular.
§ The Prime MinisterThis must be a matter for the Commission. If the Commission is to be told, instructed or asked, if it receives letters from Members of Parliament, that it must not pass them forward, it will cease to be independent. I agree that there are difficulties here. I agree that there are problems raised by the hon. and gallant Gentleman's letter. But I think that the right thing for him to do is to correspond with Ministers when he wants action taken by Ministers. If he wants me to act, he should write to me. Where he thinks that there is a point within the terms of reference of the Commission in any particular case, it is right to send it to the Commission, but the Commission must decide what to do with it.
§ Mr. LiptonMay the House be told what all this mumbo-jumbo is about? If it is important, we ought to know. If it is not important, let us not waste time with it.
§ The Prime MinisterThese matters are important, but so is the independence of the Commission.
§ Sir D. RentonThe right hon. Gentleman has twice mentioned that my hon. and gallant Friend sent a letter to a member of the Security Commission and he described the secretary as a member of the Commission. Would he confirm that he is quite right about that? Surely the secretary is not a member of the Commission? If an hon. Member of this House wishes to write to the Commission, is not his right course to write to the secretary?
§ The Prime MinisterI did not say that the secretary was a member of the Commission. I said that the hon. and gallant Gentleman wrote to a member of the Commission and that it was the secretary of the Commission who then passed the letter on to the Foreign Office. I think the secretary acted perfectly properly. These matters must be for the Commission whenever it receives letters.