– in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 15 June 1964.
Mrs Barbara Castle
, Blackburn
12:00,
15 June 1964
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why he omitted from the speech he delivered on 28th April at the Ministerial meeting of the Central Treaty Organisation at Washington a passage in the prepared text calling on members of the United Nations to earmark national units of their armed forces for use in the peacekeeping operations of the United Nations.
Mr R.A. Butler
, Saffron Walden
I have nothing to add to the Answer which my hon. Friend the Minister of State gave to the Question by the hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for Brigg (Mr. E. L. Mallalieu) on 4th May.
Mrs Barbara Castle
, Blackburn
Would the Foreign Secretary inform the House whether his inclusion of this proposal in the prepared text of his speech means that he is in agreement with my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition about the policy which he proposes?
Mr R.A. Butler
, Saffron Walden
I would rather put it that the Leader of the Opposition is in agreement with me.
Mr Edward Mallalieu
, Brigg
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that this is not the first occasion on which he has done precisely this thing? After a much-heralded announcement that he was about to make a proposal on the lines indicated in the Question at the Disarmament Conference in February, he completely failed to mention it. Is not this carrying even his prevarication a little far?
Mr R.A. Butler
, Saffron Walden
When I spoke at the Disarmament Conference on 25th February, I made proper reference to this subject, and I shall be referring to it again tomorrow.
Mrs Barbara Castle
, Blackburn
Could the right hon. Gentleman tell the House whether the Prime Minister is in agreement with his proposal?
Mr R.A. Butler
, Saffron Walden
Yes, Sir. The Prime Minister and I are always in agreement.
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.
The "Leader of the Opposition" is head of "Her Majesty's Official Opposition". This position is taken by the Leader of the party with the 2nd largest number of MPs in the Commons.
