HC Deb 28 June 1972 vol 839 cc1421-2
9. Mr. Greville Janner

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecomunciations whether he has now looked further into the non-delivery and non-return of the prayer book sent from England to Master Leonid Slepak in Moscow.

Sir J. Eden

As I have explained to the hon. and learned Gentleman in a recent letter the prayer book was not sent by post, so that no question of interference with the mail arises in this case.

Mr. Janner

I appreciate not only the accuracy of that reply but also the Minister's kindly approach to this problem. As I have now received a bill for the delivery of the book, will the Minister be good enough to indicate where it was last seen and what the Government know about its whereabouts?

Sir J. Eden

I am afraid I cannot help the hon. and learned Gentleman.

Mr. Tilney

Is it not surprising that a great and apparently civilised Power should behave in this way?

Mr. Fell

Not in the least.

Sir J. Eden

That is a matter for the consideration of the Power concerned.

25. Mr. Sydney Chapman

asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications if he will protest to the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics about the interference of telephonic communications from Birmingham to certain Soviet citizens in their country.

Sir J. Eden

I would refer my hon. Friend to the answers I gave on 10th May and 7th June to the hon. and learned Member for Leicester, North-West (Mr. Greville Janner) and suggest that my hon. Friend may care in the first instance to send particulars to the Post Office.—[Vol. 836, c. 1292; Vol. 838, c. 440.]

Mr. Chapman

I appreciate that, but is my right hon. Friend aware that Mrs. Irina Markish, who made a polite demonstration on a court at Wimbledon earlier this week, is not now able to contact her husband in Russia by telephone and that this has brought to light other instances of friends and relatives who are in a like position? Has not this brought to light a situation so grave that the Government ought to act for humanitarian reasons and make the strongest possible protest to the Soviet authorities?

Sir J. Eden

There is a difficulty here in the existence of Article 32 of the ITU Convention which allows any member country to cut off without notice any telephone calls which may appear to it to be a threat to its security or public order. It is a matter for judgment whether this falls within that category.

Mr. Greville Janner

Does the Minister consider that by any stretch of the imagination the cutting-off of these telephone calls could conceivably be because the calls are a threat to anyone in any way at any time?

Sir J. Eden

No, Sir.