Oral Answers to Questions — British Army – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 15 Gorffennaf 1947.
Mr John Boyd-Carpenter
, Kingston upon Thames
12:00,
15 Gorffennaf 1947
asked the Secretary of State for War whether he will see that members of His Majesty's Government holding appointments in his Department make a general practice of signing letters sent in reply to letters addressed to them by honourable Members of this House.
Mr Frederick Bellenger
, Bassetlaw
The number of letters addressed by hon. Members to my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State and myself is very large indeed. Nevertheless, both he and I endeavour to sign replies personally but it is physically impossible to sign each reply without detriment to the other important duties imposed on us.
Mr John Boyd-Carpenter
, Kingston upon Thames
Is the right hon. Gentleman telling the House that his Department has more correspondence than, for example, the Board of Trade, the Ministers of which are most punctilious in signing letters to hon. and right hon. Gentlemen?
Mr Frederick Bellenger
, Bassetlaw
I should think that that is quite possible—from Members of Parliament and not the general public.
Mr Quintin Hogg
, Oxford
Is there any reason at all to suppose that the right hon. Gentleman and the Under-Secretary are receiving more letters than the War Department did during the war? Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that during the war we always had a courteous reply signed by the Minister concerned?
Mr Frederick Bellenger
, Bassetlaw
That question is entirely wrong, because I have had letters from the War Department signed by the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then Secretary of State for War. I should say that since the war we have had more letters from Members of Parliament in the War Office than previously.
Sir Edward Keeling
, Twickenham
Differing from my hon. Friend just below me, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman if he is aware that in the comparatively rare cases when he signs replies to hon. Members they are even more unsatisfactory than when they are signed by his Parliamentary Private Secretary?
Mr Derek Walker-Smith
, Hertford
May I ask the Secretary of State, particularly in view of his rather unfriendly disparagement of my military knowledge in regard to the War Office, to use his influence with some of his colleagues to persuade them not to send me letters addressed, "Dear Col."?
Mr Frederick Bellenger
, Bassetlaw
Yes, Sir. I regret this undue familiarity.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
