§ 2.36 p.m.
§ LORD SILKINMy Lords, I desire to ask Her Majesty's Government the following Question, of which I have given Private Notice: Whether all employees of the Suez Canal Company were yesterday handed a circular instructing them to stop work at midnight on Friday, as requested by the Governments, and whether and when Her Majesty's Government made such a request.
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE MARQUESS OF READING)My Lords. the answer to the first part of the noble Lord's Question is, "No". The second part of the Question does not therefore arise. The noble Lord may have based his question on an inaccurate version of the message issued by the Board of the Company to its employees on September 11, the authentic text of which is as follows:
" The Board has asked me to thank the non-Egyptian employees still working in Egypt for the effort they have made for nearly seven weeks in the service of the international waterway which has not ceased to be the concern of the Company. The Board is aware of the very great difficulties these employees have had to face and the distressing moral atmosphere in which the Company has asked them to work, in response to the wishes of the British and French Governments, who were anxious to facilitate first the work of the London Conference and then the mission of the Committee of Five presided over by Mr. Menzies.
"This mission now being completed the further period of work called for by the Company a fortnight ago is now coming to an end. Consequently, all non-Egyptian employees who, before August 15, asked to be repatriated, thereby intimating that they did not accept any 726 contract with the de facto Egyptian Authority, are authorised to stop working on either the 14th or the 15th September, according to the particular requirement of the Department in which they are employed. They should forthwith make arrangements for repatriation, with the assistance, if required, of diplomatic and consular representatives."
Her Majesty's Government regard the decision of the Canal Company employees as entirely one for the employees themselves as free men.
§ LORD SILKINMy Lords, I am very grateful for that statement. Is the noble Marquess aware that my Question was based entirely upon a statement from the special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph at Suez'?
THE MARQUESS OF READINGMy Lords, I am not aware from what authority or source the noble Lord derived his information. That is less important than the fact that the information I have now given him is an exact reproduction of the Company's document.
§ VISCOUNT STANSGATEMy Lords, would the noble Marquess say what notice these employees should give, according to their contract; and, secondly, whether, when they return, they are on full pay or terminate their engagement with the universal Company?
THE MARQUESS OF READINGMy Lords, the question of notice is a matter between the employees and the Company, and so, I should have thought, was the other point. These are matters between the Company and those who have been their employees, and it is for them, and not Her Majesty's Government, to settle such matters.
§ VISCOUNT STANSGATEMy Lords, would the noble Marquess permit me to remind him that we are dealing with public funds? Four million pounds of stock in this Company are held by Her Majesty's Government and the yield thereof appears in the Estimates. It is not, therefore, within the competence of the Company to use this money to pay employees to come home.
THE MARQUESS OF READINGMy Lords, this is not a question of the Company paying their employees to come home. It is a question of the Company paying what they, in their judgment, 727 consider to be proper and adequate compensation to persons who have been put in a position of difficulty through no fault of their own.
VISCOUNT DE L'ISLEMy Lords, are Her Majesty's Government aware that the majority of noble Lords in this House are deeply grateful to employees of the Suez Canal Company for remaining at their posts in exceedingly difficult circumstances and decline to be associated with the innuendoes made by the noble Viscount Lord Stansgate.
THE MARQUESS OF READINGMy Lords, I think that not only Members of your Lordships' House but the whole of the public have good cause to be grateful to these employees, as the noble Viscount, Lord De L'Isle suggests, for the restraint they have shown in carrying on their employment during the past weeks.