§ Mr. Harold Daviesasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on what evidence he arrived at the conclusion that the British Council for the Promotion of International Trade is a Communist front organisation; and whether he will make this evidence available to hon. Members.
§ Mr. EdenIt is public knowledge that a number of the members of the British Council for the Promotion of International Trade are (or were until recently) either members of the Communist Party or closely associated with bodies which are already generally recognised to be Communist "front-organisations" and are proscribed by the Labour Party. The fact that some highly respectable personalities are connected with it is a measure of its success as a "front" organisation. These members, in fact, provide the "front".
It is also public knowledge that the Council was formed as a direct consequence of the Moscow "International Economic Conference," which was itself initiated by the World Peace Council, one of the principal agencies of Communism in the Western world. The Council is linked, both by its published "aims" and by interlocking membership, with an international network of similar Committees (all formed in the summer of 1952) which are headed by an international "Committee for the Promotion of International Trade," whose Secretary is himself a member of the World Peace Council.
Although the Council claims to act in the interests of promoting trade between 165W Great Britain and "other countries," in fact, its publications are invariably biased in favour of Communist international economic policy. It is interested solely in developing Britain's relations with Communist countries, with the notable exception of Yugoslavia.