Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Is it not a fact that Pakistan is ready to accept arbitration, but that India is not?
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I want to keep within order and to speak only about the schemes. One of my hon. Friends said that the development of the various schemes should be planned so that a shilling put into them by the British taxpayer would encourage the investment of one pound from private enterprise. In my lifetime I have seen hundreds of square miles of jungle opened out and turned into prosperous communities...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I shall come later in my speech to what the Under-Secretary of State said but, first, I would like to say a word or two in answer to what the hon. Member for Davenport (Mr. Foot) said about India. I went out there in 1904. As a non-official I was encouraged by the company I was in, to join local councils. I can remember an I.C.S. official there, who presided at my first meeting, saying, "I...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Another hon. Member disagrees with me. That is a very healthy sign indeed.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Perhaps I have not been reading my papers properly, but I have not heard of Indian troops in Korea or on their way there. I have read an American paper about Indonesia. The Americans supported the Indonesian case against the Dutch, but I understand that not one American destroyer could get any oil or food in Java from the new Indonesian Government. My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: We should be very glad if the South of Ireland would join up with the United Kingdom.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I want to call attention to two subjects which have scarcely been discussed tonight. I shall hardly touch upon the disagreement between the A.E.U. and the other smaller unions. When I was in the Ministry of Aircraft Production during the war I saw the formation of the little union in Northern Ireland—it has grown bigger since then—and it was of great use in the middle of the war. I have...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I should like to support the plea for the hotel industry. I make it a practice when I see United States citizens on a visit to this country—and I travel with them a good many times—to find out what sort of time they have had, how they have enjoyed themselves, and whether they have been comfortable. As soon as one gets to know them a little, they generally come out in the course of...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I would just like to call the attention of the Committee to one example. The argument of the right hon. and learned Gentleman did not convince me at all. A man I know very well, who has been in business in Blackburn and in Northern Ireland since he was 20 years old, called on me about three weeks ago and said it was proposed that he should turn his business into a public company. He said, "I...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: My farming constituents generally will welcome this new Clause. I have certainly had many complaints during the last two years about a change being needed in the taxation of tractors. I heard my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon, East (Sir H. Williams) suggest that there were too many shackles and this proposal was loosening shackles. I agree that the Committee is at present taking a...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Is it not a fact that Australia is at present talking about revaluing her currency and putting up the price of the Australian pound?
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I should like to call the attention of the Committee to the fact that in many parts of Northern Ireland we are entirely dependent upon sea transport and motor transport. I would thank the Minister of State for Economic Affairs, or the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for having at long last abolished petrol rationing. Of all the restrictions to which we were subject, I received more complaints...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Minister of Food what quantity of frozen meat, killed in the year 1941, still remains in his stock; and what complaints he has received as to the quality of this meat.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will examine the cost of visas for British subjects passing through or flying over some foreign countries, with a view to making the charge by this country uniform with that charged on His Majesty's subjects by the countries concerned.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the cost of flying over Iraq is extremely high?
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation when the Report on the fatal accident at Ringway Aerodrome, Manchester, which took place last summer, will be published.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Will the Parliamentary Secretary make certain that the reports from the pilots who use Ringway in misty weather are checked, and that any complaints or suggestions made by those pilots are carefully considered?
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on what date he proposes to publish the report and the reasons for the accident to the aircraft flying from Belfast to Manchester in August, 1949.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation what equipment and methods are used to enable aircraft to approach and land at Ringway Airport in bad weather conditions.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Minister of National Insurance what would be the approximate cost if all widows over 50 years of age, whose husbands were insured, received a pension of 26s. per week, instead of only those widows whose husbands died after July, 1948.
