Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: The hon. Member for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, East (Mr. Blenkinsop), will forgive me, I am sure, if I do not follow him in his argument, since this is the first occasion on which I have had the privilege of addressing the House, and I ask for the customary indulgence of the House. I wish to follow a point made by the President of the Board of Trade in his speech in this House last week. He said...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if it is proposed to allow Haifa-bound tankers through the Suez Canal now that the terminal ports of this international waterway are under the control of British Service authorities.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Does my right hon. Friend agree that the action of the Egyptian authorities in denying passage to these tankers is a continuing breach of international law?
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: asked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been drawn to the report of the Medical Research Council relating to the incidence of cancer of the lung among heavy smokers; and whether he will con-
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I beg to give notice that, on going into Committee of Supply on the Air Estimates, I shall call attention to the future of Coastal Command, and move a Resolution.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I intervene for a few moments rather in a vien of sadness in this love-feast of both sides of the House. It is amazing that we have not had today the benefit of any intervention from, indeed any presence of, the Liberal Party as it exists at present, for we are driving a final nail into the old ideal of world free trade. It is no good beating about the bush and pretending that that is not a...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: asked the Assistant Postmaster-General if his revised regulations allow a residential telephone subscriber in the London area to obtain a copy of a new issue of the London telephone directory merely by asking for it; to whom application must be made; and in what manner.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: How does my hon. Friend define "special need"? Is this a needs test of some form or other?
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: asked the Minister of Education whether she will appoint a representative of the National Association of Schoolmasters to the Teachers' Panel of the Burnham Committee.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Would my right hon. Friend not agree that the numbers of the membership of this Association justify at least one seat on the Burnham Committee? If numbers are not the test, what is?
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: asked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations with which of the Commonwealth Governments there are no agreements for the enforcing by them of maintenance orders made by United Kingdom courts; whether he is aware of the hardship caused to wives of emigrants whose maintenance orders cannot be enforced; and what steps he proposes to take to try to give them a remedy.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I beg to move, to leave out from "That," to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof: this House urges Her Majesty's Government to institute an impartial inquiry into the working of Coastal Command in order to ascertain the most efficient method of administration, operation and control of this essential arm of our maritime forces for the future. This is an old problem—the problem...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I am sure that the Air Force is very versatile and undertakes all these jobs. My only point is that if one was going into the Air Force as a pilot it would not be the height of one's ambition to go into Coastal Command and stay there.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I cannot give way. There are plenty of hon. Members who have served in Coastal Command and who, as my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Stockport, North (Wing Commander Hulbert) said, regard the Amendment as doing disservice to the country in some sort of way, and I will leave them to make their case.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: That was precisely my point, and I am obliged to my hon. and gallant Friend for making it. Those hon. Members who share my views agree that this is a specialised job, that the pilots who should fly Coastal Command machines should be students of sea war, that any other task that they perform when flying Coastal Command machines should be in connection with the sea war, and that they should not...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Primarily, sweeping mines, but laying mines as well. The logical case of the matter is, I submit, really unanswerable. But the case is not based on logic. The logical case, of course, is that in all these matters of warfare the correct categories are those of function and not of appearance. The function of keeping open the sea lanes of this country are a single and undivided function, and it...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: So should I.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: It is a mode of the exercise of sea power.
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: Before the hon. Gentleman leaves that point, may I put this to him? He says this incident brought no credit to the Navy. Although my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Merton and Morden (Captain Ryder) knows much more about this than I do, I think it is a fact that the main damage to these ships was done by Lieut.-Commander Eugene Esmond, who lost his life in that operation and who fired...
Mr Charles Fletcher-Cooke: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his reply. There is no doubt that the majority of opinion in the House tonight was against this Amendment, and that may well be because it is the occasion of the Air Estimates. As my hon. Friend has said, those who are interested in the air are loyal to their own Service and will regard this as something of an attempt to disrupt the Royal Air Force. At the...
