§ 28. Mr. Hugh Jenkinsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department upon what estimate of the number of survivors in the event of a major nuclear attack on this country he bases the civil defence of the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. EnnalsI would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to him on 26th October —[Vol. 751, c. 517.]
§ Mr. JenkinsIs my hon. Friend aware that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence said in this House last year that in the event of a thermonuclear exchange life on this island would be extinct within three days? Will he get together with his right hon. Friend? One of them must be right and the other wrong, and I suspect that he is wrong and is wasting public money on an entirely useless exercise.
§ Mr. EnnalsMy right hon. Friend, when he made the statement on 4th March, 1965, did so in the context of a thermo-nuclear war in which we were supposed to be tackling the Soviet Union single-handed. He made it clear that this was a highly unlikely event, so that the comments he made are not really relevant. There would undoubtedly be very serious devastation, but there would be life on this island. Civil defence is necessary in order to prevent casualties, for the treatment of the injured and in order to provide survivors with a means of life.