Oral Answers to Questions — Middle East – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 26 March 1956.
Mr Arthur Henderson
, Rowley Regis and Tipton
12:00,
26 March 1956
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, what arrangements have been made to publish the disarmament plans put forward by the Governments represented on the United Nations Disarmament Sub-Committee.
Mr Selwyn Lloyd
, Wirral
As I reminded the House on 19th March, the Disarmament Sub-Committee meets in private. Its report, together with the texts of the documents tabled, will I expect be published when the sub-committee reports to the Disarmament Commission.
Mr Arthur Henderson
, Rowley Regis and Tipton
Does the reply of the Minister mean that each Government is being left to issue summarised hand-outs, and that we shall not get the text of the main proposals until the end of the conference?
Mr Selwyn Lloyd
, Wirral
As I have told the right hon. and learned Gentleman before, we are only one of the members of the Sub-Committee, and therefore we have to try to act in agreement with the others. Certainly I agree with him that it is necessary that, before the Disarmament Commission deals with this matter, these proposals should be made public.
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.
