Mr. E. P. Smith:

asked the Secretary of State for War if he will now lift the ban imposed on near relatives visiting their kinsmen in Dungeness.

Sir J. Griģģ:

The by-laws restricting entry to the Dungeness controlled area will be revoked as soon as it is safe to do so. In the meantime, persons who can satisfy the local military authorities that they are relatives or residents in the area, will be permitted to enter it to visit them.

Mr. Smith:

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the area of Dungeness is like a vast concentration camp and that, though I have a pass to take me anywhere in my division, it took me three-quarters of an hour to get into it the other night and that while I was there three men home on leave were refused admittance?

Sir J. Griģģ:

I do not wish to be accused of undue subservience to the hon. Member or to his constituents, but the defence laws are concerned not with security in the ordinary accepted sense of the word but with the safety of the persons entering the area.

Mr. E. P. Smith:

asked the Secretary of State for War whether he will take steps to provide main water for the inhabitants of Dungeness whose wells have been poisoned by the seepage of Army petrol and who, at present, have to depend upon supplies brought every three days or so and deposited in tanks scattered haphazard about the village.

Sir J. Griģģ:

This matter is under consideration with the local authority and the Ministry of Health.

Mr. Smith:

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the village of Dungeness had some of the finest natural water in Kent and will he do his utmost to provide all the inhabitants with main water?

Sir J. Griģģ:

The intention of my answer was to indicate that the restoration of the previous delectable position was a matter which we were pursuing as quickly as possible.

Can my right hon. Friend say why petrol has been allowed to seep into these wells? Why could not it be kept in a proper place in containers?

Sir J. Griģģ:

I think that if my hon. Friend had studied or listened to certain accounts of the defensive measures taken to protect this island against invasion in the earlier stages of our fortunes or misfortunes, he would have gathered the answer from that himself.

That is the way to talk to the hon. Member.