Ambassador to U.S.A.

HC Deb 26 April 1971 vol 816 cc30-1

38. Mr. Clinton Davis

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will recall Lord Cromer, Her Majesty's Ambassador to the United States of America.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

No, Sir.

Mr. Davis

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that many hon. Members found the maiden speech of Her Majesty's Government's Ambassador at the Press Club in Washington thoroughly offensive and partisan—matched only by the odious statement of his wife that saving face means so much more to an Asian than does life? Is the right hon. Gentleman really telling the House that he proposes to do nothing about this offensive conduct?

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

I repudiate the suggestion that Lord Cromer has been indulging in party political propaganda. What is more, I should have thought that hon. Members opposite would have been more generous in their recognition of the wisdom and discretion which Lord Cromer was always willing to give them when they were in office.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

Is my right hon. Friend aware that most of us very much resent an attack of this sort on a superlatively able ambassador, and that the only thing that can ever be urged against Lord Cromer is that his prestige and skill as Governor of the Bank of England saved the Labour Government in 1965?

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

Yes.

Mr. Michael Stewart

Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that he has not taken the measure of this matter, and that the supplementary question asked by his right hon. Friend shows how partisan a person Lord Cromer is thought to be by hon. Members opposite? Does the right hon. Gentleman further realise that after these remarks by Lord Cromer and his wife it will be impossible for anyone on this side of the House, or for our supporters in this country, to regard him as representative of the country rather than of the Conservative Party?

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

I regard that as totally unworthy of the right hon. Gentleman. Lord Cromer is a representative of the country—[HON. MEMBERS: "No."]—and happily so, whether the right hon. Gentleman likes it or not.