Mr Robert Hudson: It is no good the right hon. Gentleman shaking his head. If he reads his speech tomorrow in HANSARD, he will find that he committed himself to that statement and that my statement as an analysis of the White Paper is correct. Now, I proceed to the White Paper itself. I am bound to say that it is filled with anomalies. It starts by saying that it is desirable—and we all agree—that in...
Mr Robert Hudson: If the Government say that the right hon. Gentleman must have molybdenum because he is the right chap to send to New York, what happens to the Minister of Supply? Why should not the Minister of Supply go to New York? The only conclusion we can draw is that the Government think—I apologise to the Minister of Supply—that the Lord Privy Seal is a very much better negotiator than the Minister...
Mr Robert Hudson: It depends on whether one has any regard for the meaning of the English language. It states they will remain responsible for all matters—
Mr Robert Hudson: Concerning the production of rayon; and as one of the essential elements in the production is, as everybody knows, sulphuric acid—
Mr Robert Hudson: I am not denying what the hon. Member says. I am only saying what is in the White Paper.
Mr Robert Hudson: It is not. It is a question of the use of words. Now I turn to paragraph 17 and I invite the hon. Member to read that. If he can make any sense out of it he is more clever than I am, and a good many of my hon. Friends on this side—[Interruption] If hon. Members are not careful I will read the paragraph out to the House, and then they will realise. The fact of the matter is that the setting...
Mr Robert Hudson: I am very glad indeed of the correction, but does it need a new Minister of Materials to do that? The proper people would be the existing President of the Board of Trade and the existing Minister of Supply—if the right hon. Gentleman had any confidence in his colleagues. There might occasionally be some bottle-neck about which he might stir things up, but it is not necessary to have a...
Mr Robert Hudson: If the hon. Member takes the trouble to look at his own "Bulletin of Industry" he will find that the rises in price and the shortages of materials are described as having begun before the outbreak of war in Korea.
Mr Robert Hudson: I beg to move, in page 2, line 9, to leave out from "appoint" to "secretaries" in line 10. and to insert "such." The effect of this Amendment would be to remove from the new Minister the power to appoint a Parliamentary Secretary. We think it is sufficient for the right hon. Gentleman to be added to the list of new Ministers and, as the work has already been done by the existing staff of the...
Mr Robert Hudson: I do not want to prolong the debate, but the remarks of the right hon. Gentleman tempt me to do so. For the Minister to get up and say that, supposing the House deliberately passed an Amendment forbidding him to appoint a Parliamentary Secretary in these terms, he would still be open to take advantage of the use of the word "secretaries" to appoint a Parliamentary Secretary, seems to me to...
Mr Robert Hudson: Would the right hon. Gentleman be good enough to express his views to the Minister of Health and the President of the Board of Trade?
Mr Robert Hudson: We are indebted to the Lord Advocate for an explanation of the view which the Government take on this disputed matter of interpretation. Far be it from me as a layman to venture my neck into such a dispute. Why we regard the Order with a certain amount of suspicion arises from the fact that we know that it is a very complicated subject and we also know—I do not think anybody on the...
Mr Robert Hudson: (by Private Notice) asked the Prime Minister whether he can make a statement showing what are the inter-Departmental arrangements regarding the distribution of materials referred to in paragraph 17 of Cmd. 8278 in view of the many changes that have taken place since the date mentioned in the White Paper.
Mr Robert Hudson: While welcoming the right hon. and learned Gentleman's statement, may I ask whether we can take it that it will not interfere with legitimate re-export trade between Hong Kong and China upon which the very existence of Hong Kong depends?
Mr Robert Hudson: (by Private Notice) asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the firm whose name has been given to him is purchasing in large numbers heavy duty tyres for cash, with the apparent intention of exporting them to the Far East, and whether export licences have been granted to this firm to cover these transactions.
Mr Robert Hudson: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that this statement will be received with great satisfaction by all decent merchants throughout the country?
Mr Robert Hudson: I find myself in some slight difficulty. The hon. Member for Gloucestershire, South (Mr. Crosland), in what I think all sides of the House recognised as a very well presented, well argued and moderate speech, set out to talk about monopolies. From unofficial conversations, I understood that it was his desire, and the general desire of the House, that we should try, as far as we could, to...
Mr Robert Hudson: What I am saying is—and I have no doubt that we on this side of the House are to some extent guilty too—that hon. Members opposite seem to shut their eyes to the point to which their arguments lead. The same is true of the argument the President of the Board of Trade used. He seemed to think the mote was only in the eye of the private individual. But if one is talking about civil...
Mr Robert Hudson: I particularly said, "over production, or under-consumption if you prefer to call it so." Those were the words I used.
Mr Robert Hudson: We know that the Government are going to publish a White Paper next week, and there would have been great advantages had it been possible to have had it before this debate, because we could have used this debate to discuss it. In the light of the fact that the Government are going to publish it next week, it is clear that we on this side of the House had no opportunity of preparing our views...
