Mr Alastair Harrison: I am grateful to you, Mr. Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to raise the matter of the refusal of the Ministry of Agriculture to give the Essex River Board a grant to carry out the Mundon Wash and Lime Brook drainage scheme. I am also grateful to hon. Members who have rushed through the other business this afternoon, and so enabled me to have ample time to put my case. Although the...
Mr Alastair Harrison: I rise to support the proposed new Clause. Shortly before by right hon. and learned Friend introduced his Budget I spent a fortnight in Germany, not with any politicians or military experts, but mainly with bankers. I came back absolutely convinced that in the Common Market Germany was determined to dominate the financial side. It was said to me time and again that they had no fear of any...
Mr Alastair Harrison: A few minutes ago my hon. Friend complimented my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Mr. Deedes) on his speech. Possibly he did not hear my hon. Friend demolish this argument that he has just advanced.
Mr Alastair Harrison: I fully endorse what my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Chertsey (Sir L. Heald) said about the hon. Member for Leicester, North-West (Sir B. Janner). We all know the great interest which the hon. Gentleman has taken in these matters, starting with flick knives, and one almost expects catapults to be brought in, if they have not already been included. The hon. Gentleman moved a...
Mr Alastair Harrison: Can my hon. Friend give some estimate of the number of trained technicians the R.A.F. and other Services contribute to civil life through their training schemes?
Mr Alastair Harrison: I think I am right in assuming that the actual amount which was allocated to accommodation was underspent. Is my hon. Friend criticising my right hon. Friend for that?
Mr Alastair Harrison: How does the right hon. Gentleman suggest that that should be enforced on the rest of the world—by dropping a bomb, or in what way?
Mr Alastair Harrison: I think the whole House has been extremely impressed by the sincerity of the hon. Member for West Stirlingshire (Mr. W. Baxter). He put forward a case with considerable vehemence and one which we must respect, because obviously the views that he expressed are deeply and intensely held. I wish, however, that he would accept the fact that some people who express opposite views hold them...
Mr Alastair Harrison: No, I would not say that, for this reason. I do not think that it is necessary for the Russians to have a deterrent against the West because I do not believe that the West is going to use any of its weapons in an aggressive manner. Consequently, I think that the flaunting of this series of explosions—and here again the hon. Gentleman seems to have things rather upside down—which broke a...
Mr Alastair Harrison: I take the hon. Gentleman's point, but it does not alter the contention that it was a breach of a truce which was one of the most hopeful occasions we have had of getting a nuclear agreement. To turn to the Defence White Paper which we are debating today, I think it is useful, as when one is reviewing a novel, to read the last chapter first.
Mr Alastair Harrison: In some ways I think it is quite novel. In paragraph 51 I see the words: A long-term plan is essential if the best use is to be made of man-power and resources. With this sentence I am in complete and absolute agreement. I only wish that I could say that I was in agreement with some other parts of the White Paper. My right hon. Friend, in introducing the White Paper, said that it contained...
Mr Alastair Harrison: It covers up this big change from the policy of my right hon. Friend who is now Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations to the present and more practical plan. It is the sort of White Paper that may well cover up our withdrawal from many of our bases and responsibilities, and at a date not too far ahead. When I was reading about the bases I was reminded of my right hon. Friend the...
Mr Alastair Harrison: Because it has happened with other bases. We have spent a lot of money on them, such as the Suez Canal base and Cyprus, and as soon as the money has been spent we pull out. Aden, which is a most useful base now, is dependent entirely on a successful political settlement with the West Aden Protectorate. The people there are very pro-British at the present time, and we have been extremely well...
Mr Alastair Harrison: There is a certain amount of truth in that, because Britain has been extremely successful in bringing peace to a number of these areas.
Mr Alastair Harrison: And it has often been to our own disadvantage. Considering the Far East and such influence as we may wish to exert in the Indian Ocean, we must look towards Australia or Australasia with two objects in mind; firstly, to establishing some form of agreement with those countries and, in turn, some form of base, and, secondly, to implicate them as much as possible in the defence of those areas....
Mr Alastair Harrison: I will detain the House for only a few minutes, but there are one or two points that I wanted to make about the Bill. First, I should like wholehearedly to endorse the remarks my right hon. Friend made about the child migration societies, and particularly the Big Brother movement, which is the only context in which I like to see the term "big brother" used. I have had experience of working...
Mr Alastair Harrison: I beg to move, That the Clause be read a Second time. I must, first, declare my interest. I am a Commonwealth citizen and, although I am a British subject, I travel on an Australian passport. I am not alone in that. A number of hon. Members travel on Canadian passports, and at least one travels on a New Zealand one. There is even a wider range in another place, where there is an Australian,...
Mr Alastair Harrison: There are times when Members of Parliament do have special privileges. I have given the example of the Sessional Order that the House passes at the beginning of each Session—though one has noticed that there have been unfortunate occasions when the Metropolitan Police have not assisted at all Members of Parliament in, possibly, the way they expect. There have been cases where hon. Members...
Mr Alastair Harrison: The time is so short that the hon. Gentleman must excuse me. An hon. Member would first have to prove that he could support himself and, on the salary that Members of Parliament get, some hon. Members would say that that would be difficult. I understand that certain representations have been made on that score. Whether or not a noble Lord would be able to prove that he could support himself...
Mr Alastair Harrison: In view of the nature of the reply I have received, Sir Robert, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the Motion.
