Mr Robert Hudson: Will the right hon. Gentleman be kind enough to look again at the regulations inside his own Department and try to get his own Department to set an example?
Mr Robert Hudson: This is a very serious matter. The minutes are extant in the right hon. Gentleman's Department, as I told him in the debate the other day, showing that his statement is not true.
Mr Robert Hudson: I understood the right hon. Gentleman to say that, whenever and as soon as representations were made to him by industry that it was desirable to accumulate stocks other than for current consumption, he took action.
Mr Robert Hudson: We have had an interesting but rather peculiar debate. The Amendment moved by my right hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Mr. Eden) is based, fairly obviously, on extracts from the resignation speeches of former Ministers. It asks the House to express anxiety at the statements made in their resignation speeches. I fail to see why the Minister of Supply thought that it was odd...
Mr Robert Hudson: The United States Government were entitled, over the last nine months, to a certain amount of hesitation, for they started re-armament long before us and they bore the whole of the brunt of the early days in Korea. It is as well to remember that the first re-armament announcement made here was for an expenditure of only £100 million and that it was not until some time this year——
Mr Robert Hudson: Yes; an additional £100 million. Then there was a subsequent increase in August to £3,400 million; then an increase to £3,600 million later; and then, this year, an increase to £4,700 million; but during all that period the United States had, in fact, been re-arming, and during that period they sent one million tons of armaments to Europe. During that period they were disheartened by the...
Mr Robert Hudson: It is difficult in these circumstances to conceive of a greater humiliation than they are to undergo by being forced to toe the Government line, which they rejected by their resignations. Although the Government may congratulate themselves on their success tonight——
Mr Robert Hudson: —although they may think they have successfully papered over the cracks in their party front, I personally think that they underrate the power of the right hon. Member for Ebbw Vale and his friends in the country to cause damage by rallying the discontended, the fellow travellers and the lunatic fringe. I believe that before they are very much older they will rally to the view of my right...
Mr Robert Hudson: Apparent urgency.
Mr Robert Hudson: The hon. Gentleman has said that, as early as July, 1950, the Government started the policy of stockpiling. It would be very interesting to know what the particular items were.
Mr Robert Hudson: The hon. Gentleman said that this agreement would be submitted to the House. Will it be submitted in a form in which we can discuss it before it is ratified, or will he only allow us to have a futile discussion after it has been finally decided?
Mr Robert Hudson: Can the hon. Gentleman say whether his right hon. Friend wore the suit when he recently went to see the Prime Minister?
Mr Robert Hudson: Does not that indicate that it is time that private enterprise should be given a chance?
Mr Robert Hudson: Would the right hon. Gentleman suggest to his hon. Friend the Member for Swindon (Mr. T. Reid) that he asks the housewives of Swindon whether they agree that their coal is cleaner?
Mr Robert Hudson: In answer to a previous supplementary question, the right hon. Gentleman said that Members of Parliament could now address their complaints to his Department which they could not do in pre-nationalisation days. Does his statement mean that he has now gone back on that?
Mr Robert Hudson: How can Parliament exercise control when the right hon. Gentleman has just said that he will not consider individual complaints?
Mr Robert Hudson: Will the right hon. Gentleman circulate in HANSARD figures showing the extent to which production has fallen short of his Department's estimate?
Mr Robert Hudson: Even if the allocation of raw sulphur is sufficient to avoid this cut, would the right hon. Gentleman explore the possibility of substantially increasing the production of sulphuric acid in Germany in order to get increased supplies from there?
Mr Robert Hudson: Could not the right hon. Gentleman make a new Order?
Mr Robert Hudson: The right hon. Gentleman referred to the debate last Friday week on the subject of raw materials. The outline of Government policy was delivered by the President of the Board of Trade, whose whole speech was devoted to the raw materials under his control—wool, cotton and so forth. So far as I can remember, the right hon. Gentleman made hardly any reference to any of the materials controlled...
