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Ne At Ty na are ep lt * SORBET le A a ee UE Soot eee ne rer é s what it was doing. ! 3 , £ a ee ee eee - $3300 Former reveign Office 7 NOVEMBER 1955 Officials-_ Ji oppearance responsible to the present Forsign Sec- retary in Algiers. When I talk of secrets tnd security, therefore, 1 talk with some personal experience. I know perfectly well that much of what I Jearned about it is now out of date—the ty pe of security shich we accepted and which included the steaming open of one’s letter and the ‘tapping of one’s, telephone conversations not unusual inings io happen, i then supposed, when onc had secrets. T am sure the Prime Minister will know what I mean when J tell him that in a “secret department the greatest temptation ‘in the world is to use secrecy not in the -national interest but in the Departmental interest, or in the personal interest, to “cover up” Every politician, every : Minister, every general is tempted at some time or another fo suppress in- "formation, not because it is heipful to the enemy but because it may be harmful to his future reputation or to a friend— or to that organisation to which he , belongs. Every ambassador, also, is con- : Stanly tempted to suppress information which seems to contradict the way in which he is running the policy of our country in his area. + - s- But secret depariments are the worst because they are subject to no Parlia- mentary control. The Prime Minister technically is responsible for the Secret Service, but it is clear from the Burgess { and Maclean case that the Service did not dother to tell many Cabinet Ministers 1 gather that the Foreign Secretary hardly knew before 25th May, and I gather that the Prime Minisier of the time was not told, although the Secret Service wat respon- sible to him, that for two years it had been investigating somebody _at _the Foreign Office. ° ; Mr, H. Morrison : : Tai that ‘the Prime De ee ee ee Pee | ee ae Minister Was 101G 8) tac TNC I was ioid— on 25th May, to the best of my recollec- Mr. Crossman : Therefore, for two years our counter-intelligence had been doing an elaborate investigation of 6,000 people, The investigation was narrowed down to one person, in the course of two years; of all this the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary were told nothing. That may he perfectly afl rich: hat m right, 1 know enough about secret < departments nes Pore ht mee oe Col id in ann tee. 2 ‘ Fee aS he + eee a OS © ae " Bt eo y, =? eo ee et fo know how much they resent telling politicians anything at ail because they regard politicians as very “leaky people 0." and very dangerous people to whom to. |. tell secrets, The trouble, of course, is that ° secret departments are not responsible to Parliament, '-:.- ev me atte td Despite the Foreign Secretar mendation of their patriotism, which I do not deny, I say that there is nothing more“ morally corrupting than the power to lie because it is interest, or to keep secrets by # is in the nation’s interest. rm upts. oature, are liable to the moral corruption of constantly using national security to “cover up. rivalry with tions seem to spend most of their time—or because a friend has gone wrong and someone wants ta cover the matter up. Therefore, when someone quoles this : paragraph from the White Paper, 1 as aa old member of the gang. do no belicve a word of it.. That is just what the "s * come v4 aimed to be j in the nation’s saying that n’ That cor: |” And th that is why these Secret De- © pariments. in the very essence of their — They do it either out of -- another Department—a - rivalry on which Secret Service organisa- Minister was bound to say if those con: cerned were “covering up.” p<... “The Timea * h getting rather extreme of late in its judg- Ment on al) sorts of issues, but on Satur- day, in a Jeadin Ostriches,” Vihink right. It said: - 4 ! admit that wu iteas if got matiers roughly ee re, a eT “As the authorities no doubt ‘atcutated - when holding pact information for so long. ~ many targets for criticism have now moved on... The suspicion is bound to be tha’ after dhe carly days when the interests secrecy had to be heeded. there were filial wasznms: far mistsion 3M tals eee te Searls 10 Pune Py wooo mT we that the storm would blow, itself out”, ae This, of course, is confirmed “by the Foreign Secretary's speech today. .: > a es The right hon. Gentleman was just bit chews ahinees sh Dass: anne wav oh ne of u know that Petrov whatsoever except ovided no evidence earsay evidence. At least nothing else has been published. He . said what he had to say, for £5,000. gather from an i abaeet passage jin the Foreiga Secretary's 5 Petrov refused to talk if his Pevclati jons were published in Britain. Presumably, he wanted to sell his information to a ncws- because fe then would. be paid ‘for the articles, whereas if what he a ee od te pa per. * has beta article headed “The .. it short about the Petrov case, Dui those o $s who have read the Petrov material meme der ee - ~ a a wris we 0 Pec je Paras s ‘ ern Banh ee hod BAe eis ’ ack f is ‘t i & gc Tae ty 1, to 4 ,' ‘ were pet 1 eT i + se bey ae at Le T Same * ow | | "Ey 3 rm 7 ve wh, “ye be eet ‘ * 2a} ia: . i es . ‘ oe : a . : . wry ‘. a 4 sebencomen