HC Deb 20 June 1968 vol 766 cc1287-8
11. Mr. Gwynfor Evans

asked the Secretary of State for Wales whether he will make a further statement on the explosion at the Welsh Office on 25th May.

Mr. George Thomas

I have nothing to add to my statement to the House on 27th May [Vol. 765, c. 1229–1234]. Questions relating to police investigations are a matter for my right hon. Friend, the Home Secretary.

Mr. Evans

Will the right hon. Gentleman join me in condemning all violence against persons as well as property, including that violence for which massive and expensive preparations are made by the Government to kill and maim people and to poison and asphyxiate them—

Mr. Speaker

Order. This Question is about an explosion in Wales.

Mr. Thomas

I welcome the tone adopted by the hon. Gentleman today. On the day after his appointment, he told The Times newspaper: The Government does not think anyone is serious until people start blowing up things or shooting others. It looks as though some people have taken his words rather seriously.

Mr. Abse

Would not my right hon. Friend agree that the greatest contribution that can be made to the prevention of bomb explosions of this kind would be the cessation by the hon. Member for Carmarthen (Mr. Gwynfor Evans) of anti-English racialist statements which breed the very atmosphere in which violence thrives?

Mr. Thomas

I believe that all those who have this anti-English hatred policy in Wales today are doing grave harm to the interests of the people of the United Kingdom as a whole and of Wales in particular.

Mr. Gibson-Watt

May we get back to the real point, which is why the Government so far have not been successful in finding any of the people responsible for explosions? Will the right hon. Gentleman make urgent representations to his right hon. Friend the Home Secretary?

Mr. Thomas

While I have already said that the matter of police investigations is one for my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, with every respect to the hon. Gentleman, to ask why the Government have not caught these culprits is something of a distortion of what is happening. Surely he knows that it is a matter for the police, and the police are engaged in it.

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