◆ SpookStack

a a TU SR OOTP ORE FRE EE, BRR sate 517 SEEM ARNT abt eg OO Ege Lr AE gS eS OA EE RT gr Ta pn a np, we pe a ee a i eo en eS Leda | mater eae tbe | Mussolini would have found one. | f | TMM a aa vem a ee eee acon $09 - Former Foreign Office ascism, Nazism, Communism and other Aotalitarian methods of government have tproduced. Jt is hard for ws 10 conceive yol a son beiraying his father or a father sdenouncing his own children. We cannot jimagine a state of mind which ‘regards ‘epying a$ a virtue and treachery as a jduty. We have to read again the prob- ‘lems that confronted the Elizabethan jstatesmen, Burghley and Walsingham, ywhen the Secret Service first developed, gwhen espionage and counter-espionage, Jot and counter-plot were inseparable rom international politics. 74 This brings us up directly against’“a :pew problem. It is really that of public ‘security in a free society during a period , of intense ideological warfare. We could, of course, reintroduce some methods and ‘take again some powers which we aban- " doned long ago and we hoped had gone for ever. Even in a modified form these , would have been very helpful in dealing ‘with the case which I have had to out- ‘wom ee l fine to the House today. The story might easily have been unravelled if less regard , had been had to the law. k,l. Here, may I say that T was st by a criticism which appeared recently in one of the popular papers. Why, asked this critic, was Mrs. Maclean not pre- vented from leaving England. This is what it said. I quote from the article: “. ., the authorities said they would have had no fegal power to stop : i* no law for this” 7 gaye crite ye, ms Then it goes ons: --- $7 HAY el “Could not they have found one?™ . °° There we have the very nub of the prob- Jem. Could not they—that is, the authorities—have found one? Hitler ‘would - have. found -one, of “course. Stalia had gotome, 2 ft ee “* Jn time of war we, toc, were forced to find new measures to control the rights of tbe individual, but they were never very much liked here, and 1 do not suppose that there was any product of war more distasteful to those who had to operate them or to the general public than the powers under Regulation 18B.. In recent years, however, the question of treachery, Particularly treachery inspired not by motives of personal gain but by misplaced ideological convictions, has loomed much Jarger in our national life than at almost any time in our Jong history ; and nowa- days it is not only the bureaucracy who nunca ee a en rer’ J NOVEMBER 1955 Officials +. Weappearonce "1510. soma Ma re rn eens | os aS ee -- er shel ate the holders of our national secrets. = - Perhaps even more secrets are in the |... - hands: of farge sections of industry and ‘of the scientific worldiuz..*: sats sac?” With this extension of the problem we are brought face to face with the fundae ~ mental question of liberty. How can the interests of security be maintained with- ~~ Out damage to our traditional liberties? .-: ... At what point do reasonable and neces- Bary security measures become the repug- --~. =- Nant attributes of the police State? short, how do we, in modern times, soca [* achieve good security in a democratic ..-+ society? Le eee OR A aE be Sadan a The review which I have given of the securily measures taken in recent years -will, 1 hope, convince the House that © everything that it is possible to do under -existing law—or everything that we can ~ see—has been done to protect us against treason and subversion by Government ~~~ servants, or by others. who have secret material. To the extent that security practices can be improved under existing * laws every effort has been made to achieve it. and I believe that these measures make the recurrence of an affair such as this exceedingly improbable—I do not sa that they make it impossible. .. - eg -" T repeat, however, that these measures do not, and in my view cannot, go beyond the letter and the spirit of the law. At. any rate, before the limitations of the ---~-- existing law were relaxed, were it no _ more than this, I think that Parliament would have to weigh very carefully the balance of advantage and disadvantage, for it would, indeed, be a tragedy if we ~*~" destroyed our freedom in the effort to 4.40 pat! brain ne ee a Mr. Herbert Morrison (Lewisham, *~*" ker, before Jo South): Mr. Deputy-§, Proceed with my speech, perhaps J ma permitted to stray beyond the boun of order for a few moments to refer to “~~ - the deeply regretted death of my ni . than Feed Sittice, Whiteley Ren amie BP whee Bi iwils TE ASRSRRES LA Hileae? oe SFP for Blaydon. quarters of the House. [Hon. MEMBERS: “ Hear, hbear.”] - He was a very fine |” Member of Parliament, a man of the most .w:<:..: upright character, and I would say, =.” having seen a good many Chief Whips —and IJ think that the Government Chief Whip will agree—that William Whiteley ~~ will stand out as one of the great Chief ~ ‘Whips in the House of Commons; a idk a re “Tae Pre He was respected in all “©. © + . : . . t a rh ee cee Te ne ' ry a | | | . + 2 . 4 ~ ’ ioe fa noca nin 7 inttasiahem