◆ SpookStack

Ne ee ee ee a aes Sm YY ies ae ke gt le iene ER CE Ea GRE ERE ET eT ETE I ARR E oc SEW RO NS yi eee one AR. Oe up oe : or | Hi — ee ed -- _ . j . ; Benen be ete ee Be eh a Fa lin SR pcr ste | ‘ ; ~ oe Rage TS ae bee - i 161) Former Foveign Ofice. I NOVEMBER 1955 Officials ~ vee CTHE PRIME MINISTER) 4.0 536+ si que es a eal of dealing in military operations, as e- eetere pt think the risht hon, Gentleman had, with not 26 Is ‘ woe Te mining and counter-mining, You try w ‘. eee pt do the best you can so that the other : - Re fellow shall no: hear or see what you are unfavourably, <j boo ere bt doing, and he does the same. That isthe *~ amine _ a closest parallel to espionage and counter eo mae hd espionage, and in both exercises silence is Bn corer eee ree om 2 Yan i. : os ae ,- 7 shore Sow eb: C ae afr aoa 4 a ena) oP eens Sree —_ : ar oe eos eee eee -* eee . “ tre ry: defection of Mr. Petrov. * mre the essence of success. I still look for- ward, though without much confidence, to a debate in the Soviet Pasliament oo the - The truth is that there are one or two Ministers who are responsible and who can judge the current record of the Security Service on the basis of facts aad figures ; but, -in the mature of things, we cannot disclose all that. Too ma people would like to know, but there is one test which can be applied, and I think the House would perhaps like to have it applied. Jt was touched on gently earlier in the debate—what they achieved in the war. To, ~ Curiously ‘enough this record can be quite accurately assessed and measured, because, of course, it can be checked against the German records captured at the end of the war. Unfortunately, we cannot do that in the other case. It may be discussed because Ht is a closed chapter. ¥ can say io general terms that, as checked against Ger- man intelligence, the right hon. Gentle- man is perfectly correct. The countgr- espionage achievement of our Security Service during the was was quite out- standing. Ln oes Voge woop I want to give a practical iNustration of this which may interest the House. The Normandy landing in 1944, in which some hon, Members probably took part, achieved # complete tactical surprise. We know that not only because of what hap- pened at the time but from the German - records which now make it quite clear. - That could never have happened if our Security Service here had not -achieved - such outstanding success in purging away enemy spies from the home base from which it was launched, Hon. Members, koow—hon. Gentlemen have referred to it—how orany people, how many soldiers, Knew ; yet the base was 50 purified that io fact nothing at afl was gained by the enemy. ne eee That is perhaps the greatest tribute to the Security Service that there has been, This debate has shown that this is note we # wl td Soper ns. t og, cy pebink, rightly guarded.” ~ - > mo si othe tb AL a Pare . SE eee Big OE Eee isappearanee $612 ° markable record. -1 do not know—T cans t go Into our record against Communist spies since the war, but I think on thé whole that the result will compate not ‘quiry into the Security Service. I do not ink that there is need for such an ine | uiry. but 1 will make a suggestion. 1 should like to say why J do not think it is Feally necessary. Following the Fuchs case, and io pari as a result of the critl- cism of our security organisation, an official inquiry was made in 1950—that Was not teferred to by my right hon. Friend—when the Socialist’ Government. were in office. It was a secret inquiry. its report was secret, but I think I can tell the House that the conclusion of the re- rt was that the Security Service was ound to be well equipped, well organised. and capable of adapting itself to its ad- mittedly quite different tasks, as several - hon. Members have said. 1 have no doubt that that is true and that we cao have confidence in the Security Service, < As the Foreign Secretary explained earlier this afternoon, for many genera- tions past. perhaps for centuries past, it has happily been unnecessary to question the loyalty of men and women in the pub- lic service. Perhaps—and } admit this to the hon. Member for Coventry, East: 4 think perhaps there is something in this— _ that induced a certain tendency to feel thal it cannot happen here, That, I think, may well be true. Perhaps we were a littlé laggard to realise the. danger for that” reason, but there is no doubi at all, and I really can assure the House of this, that any such comfortable illusion was finally shattered | by the disappearance of Maclean, Tb a a ete oth pie ert oe No time was wasted once the extent of the threat was understood. There has been a progressive tightening of security measures throughout the public service. The Foreigo Secretary bas described the positive veiting, and } do not want to go into that any further, excépt to say that 1 think those proposals go as far and are as stringent as this House would be willing to approve without encroaching oa those principles which hitherto Parfia- ment bas most jealously guarded, and, § Se tee Let me conclude with this observation and Stee and it deserves credit for in, Et ip a =| Now F come to the question of an iss oh aah tcl # 7