Mr Alan McKibbin: Clause 12 of the Bill states that it will not extend to Northern Ireland, but legislation on exactly similar lines will shortly be introduced and passed by the Northern Ireland Government which, since its formation, has maintained, and will continue to maintain, social services in parity with those in Great Britain. Since the setting up of the Northern Ireland Parliament, in 1921, until...
Mr Alan McKibbin: asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is prepared to abolish the control of passenger traffic between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Mr Alan McKibbin: Is my right hon. and learned Friend aware that, in removing these restrictions, he will receive the thanks of the business community and also of tourists, who have so long been denied their rights as British subjects to travel freely within the United Kingdom? Is he also aware that hon. Members opposite, who are not so friendly disposed towards Ulster, can scarce forbear to cheer, and that...
Mr Alan McKibbin: I would point out to the hon. Gentleman that in the last war sections of the whole community of Northern Ireland were in the Home Guard, Catholics and Protestants.
Mr Alan McKibbin: The hon. Gentleman has made a mistake. Donegal is not in Northern Ireland.
Mr Alan McKibbin: A number of the hon. Gentleman's statements were incorrect. One was when he said the R.U.C. were armed. Their arms were taken from them in January.
Mr Alan McKibbin: Another incorrect statement was that about the police vetting the Home Guard and seeing who was permitted to join. I understand that the Home Guard will be administered by the Territorial Army in Northern Ireland and that the police will have nothing whatever to do with who should join. It seems, perhaps, strange, that the question of whether we should have a Home Guard or not should concern...
Mr Alan McKibbin: I will now quote from General Eisenhower—and he has no relatives there. He said: Without Northern Ireland I do not see how the American Forces could have been concentrated to begin the invasion of Europe. If Ulster had not been a definite, co-operative part of the British Empire and had not been available for our use I do not see how the build-up could have been carried out in England. The...
Mr Alan McKibbin: The Ulster Home Guard in the last war was a most proficient Force, and in Belfast we had great shipyards, aeroplane works and engineering works to guard that were vital to the war effort. The Germans knew all about them and carried out three disastrous raids on Belfast. If then the Home Guard had been ready to man the "ack-ack" guns—as they were at a later time, when it was too late—many...
Mr Alan McKibbin: The people of Northern and Southern Ireland understand each other. People like those who are behind this new Clause know nothing about Ireland. I talked to the hon. Member for Thurrock (Mr. Delargy) two or three months ago, and I asked him if he was any relation of the Delargys of Northern Ireland. He said that he did not think he was. Indeed, he said that he never went to Northern Ireland if...
Mr Alan McKibbin: We people in Ireland—North and South—understand each other. Those who have put forward this Motion know nothing about Ireland. I think that if they left us alone, instead of bringing in Motions like this, we would get on very much better together. In any case, we want to be prepared, and we hope to take our place alongside England should another war occur. I do not see why the proposer...
Mr Alan McKibbin: Both these forces functioned under separate control during the 1939–45 war, and would operate under separate control.
Mr Alan McKibbin: The hon. and learned Gentleman is wrong altogether. The new Home Guard that is being formed is not being enlisted this time as police constables but is being enrolled entirely by the Army authorities.
Mr Alan McKibbin: asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury why a registered postal packet containing jewellery consigned by C.L.M. and Company, Limited, Birmingham, and delivered to Messrs. Sharman D. Neill, Limited, Belfast, on 16th November, was opened for Customs examination.
Mr Alan McKibbin: Does not the Financial Secretary consider that if these mistakes are made, it would be much more economical and would save Members of Parliament and various officials a lot of trouble if the Customs were to send a 2½d. letter to the consignee explaining that a mistake had been made? Does my hon. Friend not consider that the package which I sent to him, and which had contained valuable...
Mr Alan McKibbin: We in Northern Ireland are most grateful that we have been fully incorporated in the Bill. During the last two wars we played our full part in the defence of freedom, both in the field and in many industrial spheres which are essential to the war machine. I am confident that the people of Ulster will volunteer in satisfactory numbers for the Home Guard. There is one matter I should like to...
Mr Alan McKibbin: The reason why Northern Ireland has no conscription is not their fault. The Ulster Parliament asked for conscription when the 1939 war broke out. The Members of the Ulster Party in the Imperial Parliament—
Mr Alan McKibbin: May I say, in regard to what was said by the hon. and learned Member for Horn-church (Mr. Bing), concerning a statement made in the recent West Belfast election. that the man who made that statement is a young member of the Ulster Government who has not been long in politics. After making the statement which was quoted by the hon. and learned Gentleman, the Ulster Unionist Party dissociated...
Mr Alan McKibbin: Will the hon. Gentleman allow me? He goes on linking Labour and Nationalists together, but the Labour Party in Northern Ireland would vote with the Unionists, because they do not want the Nationalists.
Mr Alan McKibbin: I have no intention of keeping the House very long but I must put in a word for the 860 ex-Japanese prisoners-of-war and their dependants in Ulster who have written to us. Many of them have told me horrible tales which I do not propose to repeat, because hon. Members have heard enough already from the hon. Member for Oxford (Mr. Turner), who spoke from his own experience. But when the United...
