Mr Alastair Harrison: Hear, hear.
Mr Alastair Harrison: I thank my hon. Friend for what will be a very considerable help—
Mr Alastair Harrison: I intervene in the debate with considerable diffidence as I cannot pretend to know very much about the Navy. There is, however, one thing that I should like my hon. Friend the Civil Lord to give us some indication about on this Vote and that is just how much he expects the Polaris venture to swell the Vote. So far as I can see, the difference between last year's Vote and this Vote is...
Mr Alastair Harrison: I am extremely sorry, Dr. King, if I trespass beyond the bounds of order. I was worried very considerably about the fact that from the figures in this Vote one was unable to see how much of the money concerned would be allocated to this extremely foolish venture of equipping and manning Polaris submarines. I was referring entirely to the actual crew, and so on, as it is in this Vote, and I...
Mr Alastair Harrison: Hear, hear.
Mr Alastair Harrison: Does it necessarily follow that because the hon. Member for Orpington (Mr. Lubbock) does not understand, my hon. Friend the Member for the Isle of Ely (Sir H. Legge-Bourke), who made the statement, also does not understand?
Mr Alastair Harrison: Oh, no.
Mr Alastair Harrison: I am grateful for the opportunity to intervene in this debate, and I shall try to conclude what I have to say in about six or seven minutes. First, I welcome the fact that the Royal Air Force is to be amalgamated with the other three Services and, in addition, with part of the Ministry of Aviation. I welcome that as much as I disapprove of the way in which my right hon. Friend presented this...
Mr Alastair Harrison: Before that interruption, I was referring to the TSR2. It seems to me to be the most wonderful aircraft, and of its type to be probably as great in design as the Spitfire was in the early thirties. But it is a fabulously expensive aircraft. I shall be surprised if we are economically able to bring it into service unless some of our other allies agree to purchase it. I hope that my right hon....
Mr Alastair Harrison: I very much hope that the Australian Government will examine the TSR2 and that there will not be a repetition of what happened in the case of Mysteres, which the Australian Government could have obtained with Rolls Royce engines. For rather shortsighted reasons of trade they decided not to. I hope that the Australian Government will follow up the progress of this aircraft and consider the...
Mr Alastair Harrison: Does this mean that the safety of Polaris will be jeopardised?
Mr Alastair Harrison: My right hon. Friend has mentioned a very important matter in referring to E.L.D.O. Can he say whether, if E.L.D.O. should fall and not be successful in Europe, we would be capable of producing our own satellite launching scheme for putting a telecommunications satellite into orbit?
Mr Alastair Harrison: My right hon. Friend has raised a very important issue. When the Secretaries of State for the various Services have become Ministers of State, will the Chiefs of Staff have direct access to the Prime Minister?
Mr Alastair Harrison: While I agree in part with the thesis of the hon. Gentleman about the Commonwealth countries, surely it would be extremely stupid not to investigate this line.
Mr Alastair Harrison: The line of Commonwealth trade, and to have conferences of Trade Ministers.
Mr Alastair Harrison: Does my right hon. and gallant Friend not think that it is equally bad for morale, if things are bad and there is a shortage of equipment, if hon. Members say that everything is all right?
Mr Alastair Harrison: I hope that the hon. Lady the Member for Lanark (Mrs. Hart) will not be disappointed if I do not take up some of the suggestions which she made, such as that concerning the shaking up of Europe and not knowing exactly what might come out of it. I thought that was rather a dangerous and vague suggestion, but possibly it was rather like the pools assessments that we had a week ago from a...
Mr Alastair Harrison: I understand slightly better. It is very difficult for a back bench Member to take part in a debate like this, because of the obvious secrecy about many of the things put forward by the Government and by his own Front Bench. It is also, in some ways, very presumptuous for a back bench Member to criticise the Government when he does not have the facts which are available to Ministers and...
Mr Alastair Harrison: Does not the hon. Gentleman think that "months" is probably more appropriate than "years"?
Mr Alastair Harrison: If the right hon. Gentleman really believes that Mr. Menzies is as big a man as he says, why does he make the accusation that Mr. Menzies is playing party politics with the Commonwealth because he has a majority of only one?
