Oral Answers to Questions — Sarawak – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 22 January 1947.
Mr Luke Teeling
, Brighton
12:00,
22 January 1947
asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies why he made a statement on 2nd January denying the offer by his Department of a house to Mr. Anthony Brooke.
Mr. Creech Jones:
The statement was made because Mr. Anthony Brooke's message to the Press in Singapore might have given the impression that the Colonial Office, or Colonial Government, had offered him a house and money in return for an undertaking not to interfere in the affairs of Sarawak.
Mr Luke Teeling
, Brighton
Is not the right hon. Gentleman completely aware that Mr. Brooke made no such suggestion whatever, but said that it was the original Sarawak Government which made that offer? The Minister will agree that they were in the same position as the Governments of Belgium and Holland, who were refugee Governments here at the time the house was required?
Mr. Creech Jones:
For the information of the House, Mr. Brooke refused to disclose, when asked, the origin of the offer. I think it very important that my two predecessors should be protected against a charge of this kind, when it was not within their jurisdiction to intervene at all in such a matter.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
