HC Deb 28 November 1968 vol 774 cc706-7
21. Mr. Gwynfor Evans

asked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the bomb explosion at the Royal Air Force station at Pembrey.

Mr. George Thomas

I have nothing to add to the statement I made to the Press at the time.

Mr. Evans

Is the Secretary of State aware that a Royal Air Force man from the Midlands of England was interrogated by the police in connection with this crime and that he has since been kept in a psychiatric ward of a Royal Air Force hospital? Why has the Secretary of State always given the impression that it was impossible for anybody but a Welshman to be responsible? Would he not now apologise to the Welsh people for that slur?

Mr. Thomas

It is monstrous for the hon. Member to pick out an individual and cast a slur on him, as he has done this afternoon. It so happens, according to my advice, that that man was cleared. By common standards of decency, the hon. Member should withdraw the imputation which he has made against one individual from the Royal Air Force.

As to the rest, after every previous explosion which took place in Wales before Pembrey, the extremists rushed in to claim credit or to give us advice about what we should do subsequently. It was only when someone was injured that they changed their tune.

Mr. Anderson

Would my right hon. Friend agree that it is more appropriate to show sympathy with the innocent, injured airman, rather than to make this sort of party capital out of the matter?

Mr. Thomas

I think that I may tell the House that overwhelmingly the people of Wales were horrified at what happened to the young warrant officer, and I believe that it changed the atmosphere in Wales. As I told the young man, out of his misfortune some good has come to Wales: the people have realised that the cult of violence is destructive of the whole nation.