Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: That is why we have so much meat.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation how many York aircraft have been disposed of by the air Corporations; what sum was paid for these York aircraft; and for what price were they sold.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: All of us, I think, hope for the success of this scheme, because every taxpayer in this country is a shareholder in it. I was very glad indeed when this scheme started in Tanganyika. because until 1945, when the Germans were beaten, I never felt sure in my own heart whether or not we would hang on to Tanganyika. There were very many people who hoped that Germany would pursue the way of peace...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Is this scheme to be run to produce fats, as the hon. Member for Loughborough (Mr. Follick) said, or is it to be for welfare only? If it were fats alone of which we were thinking, we might produce them much more cheaply and efficiently in other parts of the world—perhaps in West Africa, or even in our own country. If it were welfare only we might have gone about it in a different way, and...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: We all appreciated the clear and interesting speech of the Under-Secretary. I see that the population of North Borneo is 270,000 and that the revenue of that country has gone up from £340,000 in 1936 to £5 million last year, according to the "Gazette." It seems to me that with an expanding revenue like that, we shall in future be called upon for many payments of this kind. I do not know the...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Is oil produced there?
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I thank the hon. Gentleman. The "Gazette" mentions that there are traces of oil in North Borneo but it does not say that it is commercially exploited. I see that the population of Somaliland is very much greater, being 700,000. Up to the present nothing very much has been done to make Somaliland financially stable. British Honduras has a population of only 70,000, one-tenth that of...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: People have been discharged and now we have to pay for them. I will leave it at that. As regards Hong Kong, I thought that Hong Kong was one of the most prosperous places in the world at present, but I have learnt that the Vote is to compensate people who fought for us during the war and were imprisoned, and I certainly cordially support it. In the case of Palestine, too, it would be churlish...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Some of us have felt rather guilty about the large surplus which is piling up in this fund. The hon. Member for West Wolverhampton (Mr. H. D. Hughes) said that this was a wonderful example of the advantage of bulk purchase, but of course the people in the Colony had to submit—
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: At any rate I was glad to hear from the Secretary of State just now that these funds are to be made available very soon for the people who actually toil by the sweat of their brows in a very bad climate to produce these oilseeds. We have been supplying cheap food for the people here while the people out there have not been getting a fair market value for their produce. I was extremely glad to...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: We in Northern Ireland think that this is a most desirable Bill, and we welcome it. There have been many agreements such as those of 1926, 1929 and 1936, but this is a wider agreement in that it includes the National Health Service and non-contributory old age pensions. It is most desirable in these matters that our social services should go hand-in-hand. The right hon. Member for Dumbarton...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: This is news to me. I have never heard of anything that will sap the sturdy independence of Scotsmen. During the war, a great many Englishmen and Scotsmen were fortunate enough to be stationed in Northern Ireland, and many were even more fortunate in that they managed to marry Irish girls. Many of these people paid insurance contributions when they were in England. Some of those men, with...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: It would be unnecessary for me to do that, but I will certainly bring this Debate to the notice of the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. However, I have never found him backward in consulting the trade unions.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: The time is now eleven minutes past four o'clock, and I have to be careful myself, but I remember a meeting which I attended in a Committee room upstairs on the subject of shorter speeches at which the man who introduced the subject spoke for so long that no other speaker got a chance. I understand that this suggested rule has been introduced already by the Scottish hon. Members as a sort of...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation by what date the contingent claims between the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Ministry of Supply and the B.E.A., referred to in paragraph 25 of the B.E.A. report for the year ended 31st March, 1948, will be settled.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation what is the approximate amount of time and money lost by B.E.A.C. for the year ended 31st March, 1948, due to the uncommercial procedure, followed on the Government's instructions, and referred to in the report of B.E.A.C., page 20, paragraph 21.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Will this procedure come to an end before the next report is issued on 31st March, 1949?
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Minister of Education why the information that more than 1,000,000 francs was lost by the cashier in gambling was omitted from the British official edition of the recent U.N.E.S.C.O. report.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, why the B.O.A.C. London to Cairo and London to Australia services are to be diverted from Malta to Castel Benito; what is the reason for this change of policy; and what savings in time and money it will effect.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Would the Parliamentary Secretary answer the question whether four-engined Yorks in the past have landed at Malta without any accidents? In view of the fight that the people of Malta put up in the war, and the fact that people there are losing their employment, would he consider sending some of the staff to Castel Benito?
