§ 31. Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Lord Privy Seal why Lord Chalfont, a professional journalist, was permitted to interview the staff and officials at the Foreign Office and given sole rights to write an article for the Sunday Telegraph; how many staff were interviewed and photographed; what are their total salaries; what time and expense were incurred at public expense; and whether any Left-wing journalist would be granted the same facilities.
§ Mr. HurdSaturday, 27 March, 1982 was the bicentenary of the office of Foreign Secretary. This anniversary was marked officially by a series of lectures at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the final lecture being given by the Secretary of State Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. The anniversary attracted a certain amount of press attention—television and radio programmes were produced by the BBC and IRN and a number of feature articles were published by national and provincial newspapers. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office co-operated in the production of these programmes and articles. Any cost to public funds was negligible.